Last month, we asked if the iPad was a mobile device. And, trust us, it’s not as straightforward as you might think. After all, what makes a device mobile? Is it screen size? The ability to make phone calls? Or, maybe 3G? We caught up with CNN’s VP of Mobile Louis Gump, who offered a whole different perspective.
Yesterday, Gump was at Mobile Future Forward, a one-day event in Seattle, where he participated in a panel on the “Future of Content, Engagement, and Monetization.” Afterward, we asked Gumpwhether CNN considers the iPad a mobile device. To date, CNN has not launched an iPad app, but has optimized its website to work on the device, which primarily consisted of converting videos from Flash.
The iPad and plethora of tablets coming out this fall are prompting content owners, like CNN, to address long-standing right’s issues. For instance, should MobiTV, which has the right to stream content to mobile phones, also be able to stream videos to the iPad? Gump: “This is a similar evolution to what took place on mobile phones. FLO TV, MobiTV (and others) all had to figure out how to secure rights, and now it is happening again with tablets.” He said it may be easier this time with companies becoming more flexible as new devices come to market; however, it still remains an on-going debate. On the most extreme end, some content owners view the iPad as a substitute for cable television, and would like to charge more for content sold on tablets. (Read our explanation here for a look at how Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is pushing the debate forward.)
So, what does CNN believe?
Gump would not disclose how contracts are structured with third-parties, but offered this statement: Laptops are more like PCs than mobile phones, and iPads are more like mobile phones than like laptops. While screen size and wireless-connectivity are two major points, he argues the biggest point of difference is convenience. Tablets offer continuous connectivity. Users typically turn off their laptop between usages while on the go, but iPads stay on all day, like a phone. “You are at the airport, you pull it out, and you use it. It’s completely about convenience.”
After another year or so of this sort of parsing nonsense, an enlightened rogue media company will break rank and do a deal that’ll incorporate all these connected devices into one release window/license and concede that it doesn’t matter whether the content is accessed over the mobile network or wifi, or through the browser or an application. Then the precedent will be set and others will follow, many begrudgingly (while cursing the rogue company) and that will be the end of it. This will be one component of a broader trend that will eventually see a media landscape with just 2 release windows, public & personal.
That’s a good comment Jeremy. I’d just like to add that I’ve not “turned off” my laptop/notebook (MacBook Pro) since I purchased it. And the previous model I had for five years rarely was powered down—it just stayed on albeit in Sleep mode. How soon until standard OS “sleep” mode gets background notifications? Already they can be awoke from LAN and network connections/pings.
Kevin, it may have been all the time, but you didn’t have it with you all the time, Or if you did, that’s pretty unusual.
I always enjoy Louis’s take on the industry. I still think there’s a key difference: an iPad is a stationary device, not a mobile one. There’s something fundamentally different about it given how you may be in transit while using it, but you’re always sitting still.