If tablets = snacking, then notebooks = mealtime

The tablet craze has not offered any concern for the CEO Reed Hastings of Netflix. According to a CNET blog, “People prefer large screens,” Hastings said.  He goes on to say that customers with MacBooks widely outpace those with iPads in terms of streaming content from Netflix.

The question being why?

Well one could assert that tablets like the iPad are being used primarily as communication devices for email, social media, etc…. In previous posts, I have said tablets like the iPad mean more content consumption. So why the less consumption of Netflix content on an iPad versus a MacBook?  Sure, larger screens as Mr. Hastings said, are a key reason, but I think the consumption is much more about the type content than just how the content is consumed.

Tablets are ideal for, as my friend and former Seagate blogger Pete Steege would say, “snack-able” content.  Short, entertaining snippets of content primarily found in social media avenues like Blogs,  Facebook,Twitter, or even YouTube.  You can even add email to this mix. Think about it.  Snacks are largely consumed because of convenience. To put it plainly, they are simple to eat. They may not always be good for you, but you can’t beat the simplicity.  Like that bag of potato chips, or my favorite, Cheetos.  Rip the bag open and chow. Well, tablets are the same thing.  Would you rather boot up your notebook, wait…then start consuming, or have a tablet with almost instant on and access to unlimited “snacking”?   If your notebook is anything like mine, it takes minutes to boot, and by that time, my craving may have passed. Adding a solid-state disk drive, like Momentus XT, would significantly help my boot time, but that’s for another blog post.

Netflix offers more of a meal.  A full-length movie or even TV episode is not truly snack-able. You need to commit to the content over a longer period of time.  Hence, the larger screen preference.

So in a nutshell (no pun intended), if tablets = snacking, then notebooks = Thanksgiving dinner.

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2010-11-22T14:27:12+00:00

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9 Comments

  1. Veena November 30, 2010 at 4:23 pm - Reply

    Well put! I totally agree. I have an ipad at home and there’s no way I can watch a Netflix movie on that, I rather prefer watching my movie on either my TV or my lapop.

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