Top tips: PC, mobile, iPad and Android- getting the most out connected device platforms

Connected device platforms, such as smartphones and tablets like the iPad, have undergone explosive growth in recent years, but it’s a focus-area that’s been generating excitement and anxiety in equal measure amongst digital marketers. While the launch of new platforms herald a wealth of new opportunity for monetising the delivery of content, for digital media and marketing professionals there is still some way to go in finding the best way to navigate and exploit the changing platform landscape. Jeff Whatcott, SVP Marketing for Brightcove, offers some tips for marketers on getting the most out of these emerging platforms.



Mobile is the biggest sea-change.
The huge uptake in mobile video consumption has fundamentally changed the way people access the internet, with mobile internet usage set to overtake desktop browsing in just a few years. Digital marketers need to build this sea-change into their planning going forward. For content and application developers, there are going to be no easy routes to market for the foreseeable future. With a plethora of devices and platforms the industry is just going to have to factor in a level of runtime fragmentation and complexity for digital media content applications.
To address this every digital organisation should develop a strategy for:
The PC Web. The HTML5 vs. Flash battle looms large over the future of the PC Web, but today you need to embrace both. For now, Flash remains the most relevant rich media runtime in terms of distribution and capabilities on PCs.
Mobile Web. Today, the mobile web is all about touch websites incorporating optimised experiences for smartphone and tablet resolutions and UE gestures. All of the usage growth in mobile web is coming from the Touch Web and HTML5 seems to be emerging as the only unified platform to address content apps to these platforms.
iPhone/iPad Apps. If you want to partake in the marketing, distribution and revenue-stream momentum of Apple, you need to participate in the Apple iTunes ecosystem. So you need native apps that provide value, and tap into in-app advertising and payments for apps and content.
Android Apps. The same applies here, and the future is going to make this more complicated with additional native app runtime platforms, and more device form-factor proliferation.
Be ready for the next big thing.
At the moment it’s undoubtedly mobiles and handheld platforms, but the next device to enter the platform boom will be the connected TV. Connected applications will be as important as over-the-top TV distribution and these devices will be another surface for contextual access to information and interactivity. TV will be about interacting with Facebook, online gaming, and video calling, as much as about consuming long-form linear video programming.
By Jeff Whatcott
SVP Marketing
Brightcove
www.brightcove.com/
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