The National Association of Television Program Executives, a.k.a. NATPE is conducting its annual conference this week. Naturally, AdAge sent a reporter. Here’s a slice of what he heard:
The only thing holding up the explosion of the mobile phone content and advertising business continues to be the lack of interested viewers, panelists bemoaned at the second annual NATPE Mobile conference here.
Currently, 20% of all mobile users have video-enabled cellphones, but less than 10% of that sector has actually used that video access, said David Poltrack, chief research officer of CBS Corp. “What we have is a good news, bad news situation. The bad news is the low percent of people actually using it, but the good news is that we have all these people with new video opportunities. All we have to do is get them to start using it.”
Looks like this is not a “build it and they will come” moment. I, for one, don’t care to view video on the tiny screen. I have a laptop that works just fine for that purpose.
“The only thing holding up the explosion of the mobile phone content and advertising business continues to be the lack of interested viewers”
That’s like saying “The only thing preventing me from getting laid every night continues to be the lack of interested chicks.”
Sometimes you just can’t, uh, shove something down someone’s throat. Like new technology that consumers don’t truly desire.
Funny stuff, Mr. G.
Do you really know you want something–like a mobile music player–before it’s invented (and perfected)?
Clearly, some inventions do, in fact, create desire. But some don’t.