As I peek at 2013 coming just around the corner, I cannot help but notice how downward price pressures are intersecting with demand and driving digital signage market growth. As many benefits continue to be realized, I believe some are more important than others and point to what we can expect in the coming year.
As in any tech-fueled market, reducing cost while increasing efficiency are major factors that come into play when talking about market growth. This fact is highlighted by realizing that digital signage fits well into the corporate mantra of "doing more with less."
With digital signage, doing more with less is certainly one of the big benefits. And with noticeable price reductions in 2012 that are certain to continue in 2013, I concur with recent reports from IHS iSuppli, Platt Retail Institute and others who believe the demand will continue to build at a healthy pace.
Price reductions are being realized in every area of digital signage. For example, as hardware is getting more specialized for media playback on consumer-type products that are mass produced for a worldwide market, the digital signage industry either directly or indirectly benefits from the use of this mobile and media-centric technologies that have a considerable scale of economy in production. This scale of economy is being reflected in today's prices of media players and displays used for digital signage. Even on the software side, the use of Linux and the recent emergence of Android on media players leads the way to extremely low cost albeit more basic offerings, putting a small turnkey system at about the same price as taking the family out for a nice dinner.
The most cited benefit of digital signage is to place information anywhere it needs to be updated often-automatically through an existing IT network-increasing workplace efficiencies by reducing time-consuming micro tasking of personnel who can now be reassigned to less redundant activities. The added benefits to the workplace doesn't just save time and labor, it also increases the effectiveness of communicating, making digital signage a win-win proposition for both managers and consumers.
You don't need a psychology degree to understand moving images are more appealing to one's eye than static images. Combine this with media designed for a certain demographic and then scheduled to playout accordingly at the right place and time, now the effectiveness of the medium increases exponentially.
I believe we're now at the tipping point where digital signage is no longer a nice to have but more like a got to have, e.g., "By using digital signage I get more bang for my buck by reducing production cost upwards of 50%. And this efficiency increases the more I choose to update my message." Simply put, digital signage today just makes good business sense on many levels.
So what's the bottom line for 2013? Well...the bottom line. Communicators using digital signage are better informed and more experienced today, which equips them to make wiser business decisions that are based on ROI or ROO, and this will drive the future of digital signage in 2013.
Keywest Technology is a longtime member of Infocomm International with over 12 years of experience helping professionals use technology to effectively communicate. For further
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