Welcome! I’m hoping this blog provides the opportunity to reflect on historical influences in our business, allows you to reflect on drivers for change, and perhaps adjust your business model to remain competitive.  I’ve tried to keep this relatively light, with links that provide access to whitepapers and datasheets that might help you with your next business challenge.

I invite comments, personal anecdotes, and questions. I look forward to responding.

Game-changing technology that affects our behavior

During my career, I had the fortune to work for Motorola. While at the time my focus was on the high-speed internet side of cable, I was fortunate enough to be exposed to the cell phone side of the business. At the time, the focus of marketing for cell phones was how small and pretty you could make your phone.

Indeed, Motorola had a great deal of success. The Razr phone did capture a large market segment and Motorola rode that wave as long as it possibly could. Probably too long.

The need for number pads on a phone

At the time I was always provided with the latest and greatest phone to highlight to our customers. At the apex of the Razr’s popularity I discovered Motorola had a phone that was only available to the Chinese market call the Ming. The Ming was about the same size as the Razr and followed the clamshell design. The big difference was when the Ming was unfolded, it did not have a number pad. It did have two small video screens, one for choosing applications such as contacts and one for the input of phone numbers. I thought to myself that this was a game-changer, and this was the future of the phone. When I asked marketing at Motorola Canada, I was told they had done focus groups and it was determined people wanted keypads.

I personally thought they were misguided, but who was I to judge? After all, I was just a QAM junkie.

Competition, an accelerant for innovation

While Google had great success with the introduction of Android in Motorola phones, Apple also found success with the launch of their iOS phones. This spurred a great deal of innovation that would drive data consumption of wireless to the point that the cell phone would have a significant influence on how one consumes content. Applications such as Youtube and more recently TikTok have created an alternative media, competing for advertising dollars.

Too little too late?

QAM TV was not to stay stagnate. After some delays due to content storage time shift legalitiest, TV would keep QAM TV’s head above the water. Network DVR was also a significant factor. But the reality is that the handheld screen certainly pulled eyes away from traditional TV.

VOD offered by the Cable or Telco provider certainly had great initial success. Netflix and Amazon coming into the market leveraging the small screen tech also kicked off the cord cutting trend.

Smart TVs have been a lifeline for QAM televisio andh cheap set-top alternatives such as Amazon Firestick. Content sources could either be QAM or IP sourced, influencing the behaviour of how one takes in content.

The question is, is this enough to slow the trend of the small screen taking viewership away from the large screen?

By Gord Mummery

Director of Canadian National Accounts

With over 25 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, Gord has worked with companies across North America, Europe and Asia to deliver industry-leading video and data solutions. Based in Toronto, Ontario, if you can’t find Gord in a customer headend or boardroom working to solve the next challenge, you just might catch him fishing in a tournament.