Challenges to the Digital Living Room Market - Essay Example

International Economical and Political Environment (Digital Living Room) Changing Technological Environment-Challenges to the Digital Living Room Market The modern Digital Living Room Market is moving towards a seamless environment composed of wire and wireless gadgets like personal computers, televisions and cellular devices. The market ground for the domestic entertainment is becoming the battlefield for the different companies providing sophisticated gadgets for playing video games, recording videos, and a host of other voice enabled services. Different companies like Apple and Google television are fighting to gain a larger share of the market through proper content generation and distribution. Similarly, the companies like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are competing to occupy space in the digital gaming market. (Suster; Saxtoft; Sandoval). The growing competition in the Digital Living Room market is posing a serious threat to the different service providers regarding their ability to sustain. Thus, the directors need to devise strategies to operate jointly in the digital market to not only satisfy the increasing needs of the consumers but also in helping themselves to sustain. Moreover, the directors need to focus more on innovation and cost effectiveness to render more sophistication in the services provided. This would help in generating customer loyalty. The Digital Living Room market companies can also enhance the sphere of the User Interface applications through the development of the interactive sphere by conducting live chatting session with their friends through the television while viewing a certain program. Even the Digital Living Room market companies can coordinate with other service networks like Skype to promote on-line calling experience through the television sets. Further product enhancement strategies like creating a three dimensional experience with surround sound can also be brought about by the Digital Living Room service providers in cooperation with the video gaming industry. Moreover the companies can conduct market surveys before the launching of new product to understand the tendency of market demand. Large-scale promotion activities through print and electronic media would help in creating mass awareness of the new innovation. Further service and customer touch points must be created in regional points to help understand customer feedback on the service offered. This would help the companies to customize their products and services, which would generate better sales and revenue for the firm. Effect of Economic Activity on the Digital Living Room Market The economic development of the various regions in the developed and developing world has created huge demand for changes in the digital living room market. The Digital Living Room Market is getting filled up with competitors like Apple, Google and Netflix to a name a few in the field of media content generation. Moreover, different players like Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony who are spontaneously innovating newer products to fill up the market are increasingly filling up the video gaming industry. It is expected that the competition between the digital players would reach new heights in a matter of a decade. The deal made between Apple and Faustian AT&T helped in the creation of gadget like iPhone, which revolutionized the cellular market. It rather broke the powerful influence of the mobile manufacturers in not letting other software providers to penetrate the cellular market. Again the development of Internet supported television sets are helping to create ample opportunities for the growth of Consumer Electronics industry (Suster; How IP Services Will Drive CE Evolution). The region of North America which was previously quite hostile to the digital development is gradually changing its face. Due to ongoing hostility the stock quotes of the different digital companies showed a declining trend from the period of 2004 to around 2008. The growing awareness of the North American about the digital environment created a demand for developing home office through the use of Internet services. This helped in the growth of the market of Internet service providers in the region (Murphy). The Digital Living Room Market got a good chance to flourish in the economy of Japan from the period of 2010. The market for the integrated digital network achieved high market penetration through the marketing strategies of indigenous brands and better accessibility of the Internet in several regions. Moreover the market for an integrated digital network is also gaining huge demand in the Eastern European economy. An estimate shows that the number of shipments from Japan to Eastern Europe of the integrated digital television systems would increase from 2.5 million in 2010 to around 10 million during the 2014 period (Kastelein). In United Kingdom the future of digital living room market also invites huge competition from its key domestic players. The digital living room market in United Kingdom is filled with a number of companies like British Telecom, SlingMedia, Netgear, Verizon amongst others throwing a challenge to foreign players like Apple and Google to enter the digital market. (Waters). Contemporary Cultural and Social Changes and the Digital Living Room Market The cultural and social changes in the modern context have been brought about through the development of social networking technology. Increasing use of software developments like You Tube and Twitter have made the service providers like Google and Apple in the Digital Living Room market to further develop their capabilities. You Tube through the use of Google television have created wider opportunities for the users to share videos through an online medium. Furthermore, Twitter has also announced of the development of an application that will closely perform through the use of Google television. This reflects a huge cultural shift from viewing television as broadcasting medium to the use of Internet for social networking purpose. (Chrum). The social and cultural changes in North America welcoming the digital approach to their work and domestic environments are more found in the case of the white population. However, the maximum number of people in the region is suffering from illiteracy and poverty that restrains them to switch over to technological changes. Moreover the use of Internet by the white population in the region is mainly found for sending electronic mails than for other purposes. However the increased association of the people with the internet is letting them gain access to other internet communication tools through which they can better communicate with people of their communities. Thus Internet cafes are gradually sprouting up in the regions of North America. (Wellman, Haase, Boase, Chen, Hampton, Diaz & Miyata) The Japanese society has become widely addicted to the use of twitter and you tube which helps the people socially interact with other people. With these social networking instruments the Japanese people divulge in creating blogs and writing reviews about products or on certain social events. The Japanese people view the use of twitter and you tube as an aid in cementing their communities (Dryza). In United Kingdom, celebrities for acquiring fans in the region mostly use twitters and YouTube. (Twitters analyzed in social study). An analysis of the political, economic, social and technological parameters of North America can be done to render further clarity to the issue. Political Factors The region of North America fails to generate any political regulations, which would help in restraining the video and audio contents from being copied. However, some companies like Microsoft have been developing their own Digital Rights Management systems to help protect their contents from being pirated (Murphy). Economic Factors The economic factors in the North American region have rendered a potential market for the induction of digital technology in the domestic scenario. With due market support the digital technology has been able to gain a significant stand in the North American market. The sales of digital video recording gadgets have increased from 400,000 in 2005 to around 1.7 million by the end of 2006 (Murphy). Social Factors The white population of the North American region is more acquainted with the use of digital home technology. The people other than the white tribes owing to scarcity of education and money fail to gain wider access to such technology. However, with the growth of Internet technology use in the region the gender and age gaps are slowly depleting (Wellman, Haase, Boase, Chen, Hampton, Diaz & Miyata). Technological Factors The technological front of the North American region is generating huge acceptance to the networking of different modified gadgets to the Internet technology. High definition audiovisual sets combined other media playing gadgets and set top box packages are gaining a huge market in such regions. Thus company like Apple TV is expecting huge sales to each around 230 million units in the North American region (Murphy). Works Cited 1. Suster, Murphy. ‘The Future of Television & The Digital Living Room’, 2010, January 10, 2011 from 2. Saxtoft, Christian. Convergence: user expectations, communications enablers and business opportunities. John Wiley and Sons, 2008. 3. Sandoval, Greg. ‘Why Netflix has content and Google TV doesn’t’. 2010, January 10, 2011 from 4. “How IP Services Will Drive CE Evolution”, intelconsumerelectronics.com, 2008, January 10, 2011 from< http://www.intelconsumerelectronics.com/Archive/IP-Services.aspx.> 5. Murphy, Michael. ‘Marconi, Mesh Networks, IPv6 and You’, 2008, January 10, 2011 from 6. Kasteltein, Richard. ‘Could Connected TVs overwhelm the Internet? 21 percent of TVs in 2011 sold will be Smart’, 2010, January 10, 2011 from 7. Waters, Darren. ‘Battle over the digital living room’, 2007, January 10, 2011 from 8. Crum, Chris. ’15 Reasons Google TV will make a huge impact on the web’, 2010, January 10, 2011 from 9. Wellman, Berry, Hasse, Q. Anabel, Boase, Jeffrey, Chen, Wenchong, Hampton, Keith, Diaz, de I. Isabel, & Kakuko Miyata, ‘The Social Affordances of the Internet for Networked Individualism’, 2003, January 10, 2011 from 10. Dryza, Kristina. ‘How the Japanese communication strategies differ from the West’. January 10, 2011 from Read More