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    « Can you text Hollywood Henderson and ask him? | Main | #HRHappyHour 164 PODCAST - 'The 8 Man Rotation Takes on Rutgers' »
    Monday
    Jun032013

    By 2015, you'd better be a content creator

    I peeled my eyes away long enough from the ongoing drama at Rutgers University (by the way, catch a special HR Happy Hour Show on all things Rutgers here), to catch the news that market research and analyst firm IDC is predicting that by 2015 global shipments of tablet devices are expected to overtake shipments of PCs.

    Here are the specifics of what IDC is forecasting for tablets and PCs as reported by Bloomberg:

    Tablet shipments are projected to grow 45 percent from this year to reach 332.4 million in 2015, compared with an estimated 322.7 million for PCs, according to Framingham, Massachusetts-based IDC. PC shipments may decline 7.8 percent this year, the worst annual drop on record, the researcher said, a revision from its prior projection for a 1.3 percent decrease.

    Pretty interesting if not terribly surprising I suppose. Just think about how much personal computing (taken generally) has changed since the introduction of the first iPad just a few years ago. Chances are you or someone in your family, or maybe everyone in your family, had jumped into the tablet craze. And why not? Tables are fantastic for watching movies on the plane, checking up on your social networks, playing games, and sure, tapping out that odd email or two when you are on the road or on a plane.

    Pretty obvious right? But worth repeating and thinking about what this means. Hers is more from the Bloomberg piece:

    More portable, affordable and backed by hundreds of thousands of applications, tablets are replacing PCs as consumers’ main tool for checking e-mail, browsing websites and accessing music and movies.

    Read it again and think about what, so far, you and pretty much everyone else does with a tablet. You sit back. You relax maybe. You have the TV on while you are messing with your iPad. You consume. Movies, books, your friend's updates on Facebook. Sure you might send the odd email or two, but you probably read 10 more for every one you actually create and send.

    If the trends in the growth of tablet shipments that IDC predicts are accurate, then in just a couple of years more personal devices that are primarily oriented on consuming content will hit the market than ones whose primary purpose is creating content. All the content that you and me and most working stiffs create, even boring content like spreadsheets and slide decks, (that pay the bills for lots of us), are created on PCs. Even 'creative' stuff like blog posts (other blogs I mean), and graphics and podcast and video editing - all done on PCs or more powerful machines.

    To date, hardly anything is created on tablets. That doesn't mean they aren't amazing tools and certainly the growth and trends indicate the market values the form factor and capability. But mostly, and probably for a while, they will exist for personal and business use cases as consumption devices.

    And by 2015 and beyond, with more and more of these consumption devices out in the world it seems to me the place you want to be isn't sitting back on the couch consuming right along with everyone else. It seems to me the place you want to be is on the content creation side.

    I think you want to be the person pushing content and value (and hopefully getting paid for it), to these millions and millions of consumption devices.

    But that is just my opinion.

    Written on a PC.

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    Reader Comments (7)

    Nice article - but I disagree with the title and think you should have led with the last line. So many people/organizations are trying to be content creators but are not good at it, which is actually hurting them. For them curating and sharing content and adding commentary to it are a much better idea. Not everyone is skilled enough to be a content creator and I fear all this talk of needing to be one is missing the bigger point...sharing the good stuff.

    June 3, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterLeanne Chase

    Thanks for the comments, Leanne. Maybe I should have flushed it out a little bit more, but I think that driving my thoughts is that in order to have a really sustainable and adaptable career, you really have to be able to do existing things that either no one, or not many others can do nearly as well, or, do things that involve creating brand new things that do not exist, in this narrow example that is creating content. I think the algorithms and solutions that can find, collate, and put context around existing content are getting so good, that they will largely replace the need for many people to do that kind of thing. My favorite source of news and information is the app Zite, which after some simple preference setup from the user, 'learns' what content I might like and find interesting and serves it up to me. It is almost always much, much more aligned to what I am really interested in than say my 'people curated' Twitter stream or FB feed. I think if you want to have long-term and true value you have to find a way to create stuff. I could be wrong of course...

    June 3, 2013 | Registered CommenterSteve

    Couldn't agree more - evidenced by my colleagues at a particular company I worked with carrying around iPads and portable keyboards as they tried to work on these devices. It lasted 3 months tops then everyone was back to laptops again.

    Am I reading too much into this trend, or is this going to leave society with far more passive consumers than before? how is that a good thing?

    June 3, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJohn P

    John - thanks for your comments and observations. I think you are right on the money and I think it creates tremendous opportunity for folks who are willing and brave enough to be creators. I am following up with another take on this idea later this week - I hope you check it out.

    June 4, 2013 | Registered CommenterSteve

    Thank you for articulating exactly why I don't have a tablet--I can't DO anything with it! I can't stand typing on a touchscreen, and it's so frustrating to do anything but consume. If I wanted to watch a video, I'd use a TV screen. If I wanted to write an email, I'd use a laptop. And for quick Internet access on the go, I have a smartphone. What purpose does a tablet serve that isn't already met by a better device?

    June 4, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterCari Turley

    I can't help but smile when i find myself knowingly or unknowingly in conversations about tablets and their functionality. I was one of the very first people that I know that purchased a tablet. I did that because I travel a lot, and my laptop is old and heavy. I fell in love with tablet and I have it everywhere with me ever since.
    People are asking me if it's worth buying one, since they already have laptops, smart phones and what not. What I realised is that if the person I talk to has an open mind and doesn't have any preconceptions on the subject, what I say might make sense for them, maybe even encourage their hidden desire to have a tablet. But if they have a strong opinion on them, like Cari has in the above comment, no matter what you say can convince them that a tablet might be a good thing.
    I know this is really not the purpose of the article, but I'm still fascinated with people who hate the product, just because it exists.
    Sorry for ranting :).

    June 5, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterSean Schlibowitz

    Wow! What a great post. Irrefutable logic and just look at how much investment Google is putting into establishing and validating authorship at the moment.

    June 12, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterIan Webster

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