A few weeks ago, I was at the local Starbucks and was talking to a person about what kind of eBook reader or tablet I could buy in the future. They said they were waiting and hoping for more features to come along and for the market to have a little more competition so they could get a lower price. In fact, this makes a lot of sense, and when you think about it, it seems like all of our electronic devices are now becoming one.
That is, more and more the lines are becoming blurred and users tend to prefer more all-in-one hybrid computers, hybrid devices. It’s hard to keep up with constant evolution, and every time a company tries to come out with a new device, it feels like Apple is a step and a half ahead of their best efforts.
In fact, there was a very good article on this topic of personal computer hardware technology recently in the Wall Street Journal by Walker S. Mossberg, published on May 5, 2011 titled; “Couch Potato On the Go: Watching TV On an iPad”, and highlights some good points in this article, such as “Apps seem to be the primary method that vendors have chosen to make TV available on the iPad tablet. HBA just released one. These apps primarily offer time-shifted viewing, not live.”
Walt also discusses what Netflix, Hulu, Xfinity TV, ABC Player, WatchESPN and MLB At Bat are doing with the apps on iPad. Please read this article and come back to this article, as I would like to switch gears for a moment and discuss something that came up at a recent Think Tank meeting that intrigued me and had me pulling the strings to produce this article. .
Perhaps, in the future, people will be in the city more and spending money because they won’t be sitting at home with all their fancy electronic equipment. After all, everything is becoming more mobile. This could spur an incredible resurgence in the retail, restaurant, and hospitality industry. That also means more jobs, more payroll, more consumers, and even more all-in-one computer hardware devices being sold. The reason I bring this up is because of a recent survey by Neilson that suggests the number of consumers owning televisions had dropped for the first time in history.
It looks like Apple’s iPod could eventually reach 50 million units sold and that’s just a start – keep in mind that it’s just one company and before all similar devices hit the market. It’s interesting that everyone went out and bought a big screen TV in the last couple of years, and now everyone is downsizing their personal tech toys so they can take them on the road. Needless to say, it’s a good day for computer hardware manufacturers and it could boost our economy. In fact, I hope you will please consider all of this.