RBR-TVBR Exclusive:
Out with the old and in with the new is an inevitable fact of life – no matter how strong a hold an item has on a market, eventually something is going to come along to supplant it. But two new items with a growing body of users – smartphones and tablets — are so versatile they are taking bites out of a growing list of traditional items. Topping the list is the venerable old alarm clock, and [DANGER] radio and newspaper made the list.
The information comes from Prosper Mobile Insights. It looked at consumers who use either smartphones or tablets, a group with an average age of 39 – or in other words, right in the wheelhouse of broadcasting’s money demo – and asked them what items frequently used in the daily life of Americans that they would be comfortable replacing with one or the other device.
The alarm clock topped the list. And while its no real surprise that newspaper is on it, it must give radio broadcasters pause to find their name on an endangered species list of any kind.
One of the biggest pieces of news in the Prosper study is that well over half – 57.7% — would be comfortable using their device to pay directly for purchases, rather than using cash or some form of plastic – an attack on that implicates the extremely primitive media known as leather wallets, metal coins, and paper currency and checks.
Here, then, is the list:
Replaced by Smartphone or Tablet
Alarm Clock: 61.1%
GPS: 52.3%
Digital camera: 44.3%
Personal planner: 41.6%
Landline phone: 40.3%
MP3 Player: 37.6%
Video Camera: 34.2%
Newspaper: 28.2%
Radio: 27.5%
Desktop/Laptop Computer: 24.2%
Gaming device: 20.8%
Books: 20.1%
Internet service at home: 19.5%
DVD Player: 14.1%
Source: Prosper Mobile Insights™ Mobile Survey, June-11
RBR-TVBR observation: It’s fitting that alarm clocks head the list of items on the way out – the phrase “you snooze, you lose” should be a matter of concern for all in traditional media. This stuff happens FAST. It seems like it was just yesterday that digital cameras made film all but obsolete. Now they are also on the endangered species list. Stay alert and adapt fast if you plan on surviving the next five years.
We remember laughing back in the 80s when prognosticators told us that cash was on the way out. Now, it’s a rare purchase indeed where we pull something with an artistic representation of a dead president out to pay for whatever it is we’re buying. Now the plastic we use and the wallet we keep it in is threatened.
All we can say is stay alert and adapt fast if you plan on surviving the next five years.
Special Note: For radio, that means establishing a strong and compelling web presence, since that may be where many local mobile users go to find you, rather than over the airwaves.
