Friday View: No tablet strategy is commercial suicide
Tablets are changing, and consumer behaviour is too, but is the industry ready to take advantage?
For those of us in the mobile sector, this year’s CES show in Las Vegas was dominated by new tablet and phablet launches. While we’re seeing an ever increasing range of big-screen smartphones such as Asus 6″ Zen phone and Huawei’s 6.1″ Ascend, it was the tablets that really caught the eye as what is starting to emerge is a divergent and confusing sector that presents real issues for egaming operators.
Acer and Alcatel showcased new entry level tablets in the iPad mini 7-8″ range, but Apple’s main mobile hardware rival Samsung came out with two 12.1″ tablets called the Galaxy TabPro and NotePro. The specifications of both don’t differ a great deal, but it is the screen size that is of the most interest.
Tablets in the 12-13″ range are intended to be direct laptop replacements both for home and business use. If followed, as some predict, but an iPad Pro model with a 12.9″ screen size later this year we could be at a real turning point for the mobile sector. Tablets, already very much their own beast, could really start to become a sector all of their own. Or will they?
One argument is tablets are simply the laptops of this generation and consumers will find online gambling products on the web the same way they always have. It’s just a device for accessing the web and nothing significant will change. But that’s to deny the importance of apps, and the limitations of the mobile web on many of the devices.
Another issue is the increasing complexity of tablets. From 7″ devices that more closely resemble phablets to the ‘pro’ style tablets there is no clear picture of what a tablet means beyond something that is held horizontally, most of the time. It’s enough to kick-start the html5 v native debate all over again.
Paddy Power has begun developing specifically for iPad, and others are set to follow. But it’s not just about apps. Operators need to start thinking about all three screen sizes and how each of those apps are likely to be used by consumers. To fail to do that is to fail to take advantage of the opportunity at hand. And nobody can afford to do that.
What is clear is operators must have a tablet strategy in 2014. It’s not enough to simply lump it in with mobile, or to assume a traditional web product will be good enough. The consumer is changing and the industry needs to respond. If it doesn’t then it could find that’s a costly mistake.