For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Preparing For The Coming Online TV Backlash

An Open Letter To An Industry On The Verge Of A Big Mistake

by James L. McQuivey, Ph.D., March 13, 2009

Online TV viewing has been a smash hit in the US, driving tens of millions of viewers to watch hundreds of millions of TV shows each month. However, the online TV model is coming under fire inside the secretive halls of content producers and rights holders. . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

The Year Of The Connected TV

A CES 2009 Report

by James L. McQuivey, Ph.D., March 9, 2009

In the midst of a global recession, while most vendors were pushing their value-priced wares at the January 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, a small but significant revolution nonetheless took place. TV makers like LG, . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Cracking The Convenience Code

How The Convenience Quotient Guides Product Strategy

by James L. McQuivey, Ph.D., February 6, 2009

Why do the products with the most desirable features fail as often as they succeed? Diligent consumer product strategists work tirelessly to figure out how their products will fare in the marketplace. Even when their products succeed, they are often unable . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

How To Rebuild The Media Industries

What Everything Will Look Like After Recovering From The Media Meltdown

by James L. McQuivey, Ph.D., October 9, 2009

We have proclaimed the death of the music industry, the decline of print journalism, and the radical overhaul of the TV and movie business. And while each industry is being remade in its own unique way, there is a fundamental similarity in the way that . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

US HDTV Forecast, 2009 To 2014

Multi-HDTV Owners Become The Default Buyers

by James L. McQuivey, Ph.D., September 3, 2009

The nature of the high-definition TV (HDTV) buyer is changing — from first-time buyers purchasing their first HDTV to second- and even third-time buyers. By 2014, the HDTV will be in 71% of US households, and more than half will have two or more. Selling . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Five Things We Want From Social TV

Why And How Social Networking Will Take Over The Living Room TV

by James L. McQuivey, Ph.D., August 7, 2009

Thanks to Verizon, the first meaningful Facebook widget in the US has come to the TV. Some question whether the active Social Computing experience has any place in the so-called "lean back" living room experience. Those people are wrong. Once Facebook, . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Analog TV Shutdown Will Surprise Most, Harm Few

by James L. McQuivey, Ph.D., July 12, 2007

On February 17, 2009, all US full-power television stations must shut down their analog broadcasts as mandated by the federal government. Only 16% of viewers think that the switchover is a good idea, which isn't surprising given that only 22% of viewers . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Advertisers See A TV+Web Future

by James L. McQuivey, Ph.D., April 4, 2008

Forrester and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) surveyed 78 US advertisers representing nearly $15 billion in advertising budgets. More than half of them — 62% — told us that TV advertising is less effective than it was two years ago, which . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

The Future Of Apple Inc.

By 2013, Apple's Product Mix Will Make It A Credible Hub Of The Digital Home

by J.P. Gownder, James L. McQuivey, Ph.D., May 22, 2008

Consumer product strategists frequently ask Forrester how Apple's product strategy will evolve: What will Apple's product portfolio look like five years from now, and how is Apple preparing for that future today? Forrester notes that Apple has completely . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Amazon's Kindle Won't Ignite The E-Book Market

Why The Retailer Should Make And Market It Anyway

by James L. McQuivey, Ph.D., December 12, 2007

Just in time for the holidays, Amazon.com announced its first consumer electronics device, the Kindle, a wireless e-book reader jam-packed with innovation. We love the device but hate to break it to Amazon that it will be lucky to sell more than 50,000 . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

How Video Will Take Over The World

What The Rise Of OmniVideo Means For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

by James L. McQuivey, Ph.D., June 17, 2008

TV is already the world's most powerful medium, yet it is about to evolve into a form that will be even more powerful, something Forrester calls OmniVideo. OmniVideo includes today's TV content experiences and devices but goes far beyond these, creating . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

The Next Apple Music Device We Want To See

by James L. McQuivey, Ph.D., April 23, 2008

Rumors abound about which steps Apple will take next in its music business, but none of the rumors have so far hit on a significant opportunity that we see ahead of Apple: rebuilding the home audio market. Once a large, multifaceted industry, the home . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Competitive Product Ranking: Picking A Winning Set-Top Box

by James L. McQuivey, Ph.D., July 17, 2008

Between 2007 and 2008, manufacturers announced or deployed significant new set-top box products, each of them building on slightly different assets but all targeting the same goal — establishing an early foothold in at least a million living rooms. Because . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Web Video Recording Arrives In Force

Strategists Must Welcome Ad-Supported, Recordable Web Video

by James L. McQuivey, Ph.D., June 29, 2007

This week two new video players are being released — the new RealPlayer and VeohTV — both of which provide the first general purpose tools for recording Web video streams to a PC. They join the announced but still unreleased Adobe Media Player in the . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Steve Jobs Rightly Calls For An End To Music DRM

by James L. McQuivey, Ph.D., February 8, 2007

Apple's Steve Jobs boldly posted an open letter to the music industry calling for the end of digital rights management (DRM), a technology designed to protect online music downloads from being shared illegally. Forrester believes Jobs is serious, and . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Online Video Syndicator Hulu.com Overperforms At Beta Launch

by James L. McQuivey, Ph.D., October 29, 2007

Today Hulu.com, the NBC Universal and News Corp. online video joint venture, launched a private beta test that beats our expectations of what the company would achieve. It syndicates video, enables sharing, and does it all with top-notch content and a . . .

Web-To-Store Winners: Wal-Mart Gets More Lift Than Target

by James L. McQuivey, Ph.D., May 28, 2004

Retailers like Wal-Mart and Target spend big on their Web sites to grow sales, attract new shoppers, and retain their best customers. They justify investments by pointing to Web sales, but they also seek proof that their Web visitors provide a lift to . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

How Digital Licensing Will Help Save The Music Industry

European Music Forecasts, 2008 To 2014

by Mark Mulligan, January 20, 2009

"Digital music 1.0" is stuck in a niche, while CD sales continue to plummet. In 2009 and 2010, these trends will continue, and new emerging business models will not generate revenues meaningful enough to prevent further revenue decline. Solid growth in . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

European Online Video Strategies In An Economic Downturn

Why Now Is The Time To Innovate

by Nick Thomas, February 5, 2009

Demand for online video continues to rise among Europeans, especially given a challenging economic climate in which free content will become even more popular. Content owners and media companies must seize the opportunity to engage with this audience . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Music Product Manifesto: The Product Features That Will Save Recorded Music

by Mark Mulligan, September 29, 2009

In 2009, the album celebrates its 100th birthday and yet remains the centerpiece of the recorded music product portfolio. The time has come for a radical overhaul of the recorded music product range. Forrester proposes a music product manifesto of consumer . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

The Next-Gen Product Convenience Challenge

Apply Convenience Kaizen Across Entire Product Portfolios

by Ian Fogg, October 6, 2009

Due to the speed of product launches and updates in the Internet era, companies no longer have the luxury of reflecting on product and service convenience at a time of their choosing. They must think continually about what benefits every product in their . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Monetizing Social Music

Choosing The Right Product And Services Strategy

by Mark Mulligan, April 8, 2009

As CD sales continue to fall off the proverbial cliff and the paid download market fails to take up the slack, social music destinations prosper, utilizing the power of the Web to a degree that download stores never did. Although the most sophisticated . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Music Release Windows: The Product Innovation That The Music Business Can't Do Without

by Mark Mulligan, September 4, 2009

In the late 20th century, music business artist contracts, development cycles, release schedules, and promotional activity were all shaped around getting a little shiny disc of a dozen or so tracks into the stores. Now in the 21st century, the album straightjacket . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Top Consumer Technology Predictions For 2008

by Charles S. Golvin, December 27, 2007

In consumer technology, 2007 was clearly the year of the iPhone and Facebook. Apple's foray into the mobile handset market spurred innovation among the Cupertino company's new competitors, gave partner AT&T a much-needed halo of cool, and opened consumers' . . .

Business Travel Technology Frustrates Top Clients

by Henry H. Harteveldt, James L. McQuivey, Ph.D., Gillian DeMoulin, February 21, 2003

Firms that spend more than $10 million a year on airline tickets rely on travel technology to stabilize a turbulent setting, yet both the technology and travel management firms frustrate corporate managers. Incumbents must acquire missing technologies . . .