P1: Explain how the digital revolution will impact on your proposal for a new product
The History of Apps
1993 - first smartphone released by IBM (calculator, world clock, calendar and contact book) 2000 - AT&T introduces texting 2002 - BlackBerry smartphone released with wireless email function June 2007 - the first iPhone is released July 2008 - Apple App Store launched October 2008 - Android Market launch April 2010 - the first iPad is released
After conducting research into the digital revolution, I have come to the following conclusions.
As a general rule, the digital revolution started off slowly before the 1990s, and then exploded in an exponential curve to the present day. I think the digital revolution has changed people's habits because they now expect everything to be on-demand, and we are used to having our phone on us at all times. We are used to being connected all the time, and people form habits around checking their phone (e.g. checking it first thing in the morning).
I think the digital revolution will keep travelling in the direction of VR, robotics and medical technology in the future. Since self-driving cars and trains are already a reality, I don't think it will be long before we have the same for all vehicles, which would present a lot of moral issues. However, the digital revolution has had many pros so far, including interconnectivity benefitting businesses, medical tech and space exploration. I think the digital revolution overall has been very beneficial to us, and has helped us advance and achieve new things. But some cons are that privacy can be threatened more easily online, as personal information is often shared without realising how many people can access it. Accounts can be hacked and personal data could be shared by websites (the Facebook 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal), and jobs and personal safety can be threatened by what you post online (e.g. human trafficking).
One thing that is becoming increasingly common is cross-platform use of apps and software. For example, syncing your phone to your smart watch to track your steps, receive texts and listen to music via Bluetooth. This feature will be very useful to my new product, as health and fitness is a big concern to many people in the 21st century, and with new technology that tracks your steps, hours of sleep, heart rate, etc. it is easier than ever to keep track of your health. Products like Fitbits and Smart Watches are designed to be paired with a smartphone via an app, so making an app of my own that can compliment these technologies will be very useful to a large target audience.
However, when creating a fitness tool I think it is important to teach people the difference between getting fit for yourself, as opposed to becoming thin for the approval of others. Social media has created a lot of pressure to be conventionally attractive, to the point where people have developed eating disorders as a result of the airbrushed and photoshop models they see in the media, and the pressure to look like them. Of course people still struggle with these mental illnesses regardless of social media, but it constantly shows us what our lives could be like - even if what we see on our screens is completely fake. Therefore, I plan to use positive wording within my app, reminding users that they should want to get fit to be kind to their body and feel good within themselves, rather than loathe their body and want to change it for the approval of others.
When creating my app, it is important to note the cost implications. Making an app today is as cheap as it has ever been, and app-making programmes have been created so anyone can make an app mostly for free. But if you want your app to be more successful, paying for marketing is a great investment. This could be traditional advertising like in magazines, posters, and on TV, or digital advertising like social media, in-app adverts in similar products, and website banners. Since apps are such an oversaturated market, the successful ones are becoming more and more niche. Apps that appeal to a mass audience have already been created and over-done, so targeting a specific audience makes users more likely to download your app as they feel it has been made for them personally. A lot of people enjoy products that tailor a service to you and mimic a personal trainer/tutor, as audiences like to feel special and that a product is made specially for them, e.g. Quit Genius helps users quit smoking by tracking their progress over the days/months, and provides a chat room for a community to help each other.
M1: Analyse the developments within digital technologies and the opportunities generated from the relationships they have created between industries
In the digital age, creating a new project is easier than ever as resources are available at our fingertips via the internet. Digital technology can help us develop projects more easily because now everything can be done remotely and can be shared quickly with other people. For example, resources like Google Drive can allow multiple people to edit a document at once, so they can work together while being in a different room to being in different countries. The image below shows the different documents that can be created and accessed from any device connected to the internet.
There are many other websites where you can create online spreadsheets, text documents and presentations, but these are less well known. As another example of digital technology helping development of media products, Adobe products (e.g. Photoshop, Illustrator, Audition) now have a feature called Creative Cloud where all projects can be accessed remotely. Some Abode products can even be accessed on a phone or tablet, allowing creative people to work wherever they want and use the software in the most convenient way for them as an individual.
Before the digital age, to share design ideas, you would have to email documents, or print them out and send them to people - this takes a long time and can be expensive if documents have to be posted back and forth between client and creator. Whereas now, it is quick and easy to share any file with a client or co-workers by the internet, which is available almost everywhere across the world. This means that projects can be completed faster than they could before, and increased productivity means more profits earned.
The digital age can also help with analytics, as many websites allow you to see how much traffic your website has, and therefore how successful it is. This allows creators to accurately see how well-received their product is, and they can adapt their content as their audience grows. Developers can also use social media to market their products, which allows for a wider audience than we could reach before the digital revolution. Before the internet, it was more difficult to promote films and TV shows in other countries, but now companies can share social media posts across the world, and can tailor products to their target audience more than ever before. Adverts can be shown on specific websites that a company thinks their target audience will visit often, so the company knows their product is reaching their intended audience.
All of this new technology has created more opportunities between different industries to increase their success. Industries can share information, for example, news can be delivered on TV and instantly shared on social media, where you can receive notifications to your phone to see the headlines and most important information in a concise form. Another benefit is that cross-platform marketing can be used, so one product can be advertised across multiple devices and methods. For example, the TV show Humans had TV adverts, social media advertising and posters at train stations. This type of advertising keeps the show front-of-mind, because the audience are constantly being reminded of the product, so if they are looking for a TV show to watch, they are more likely to watch Humans because they already feel familiar with the branding.
Creative industries are also much less closed off than before. Creators are more open to sharing designs, templates, etc. as they know how many people who are just starting out in media rely on free online resources. Since many media professionals are self employed compared to before the digital age, they know what it takes to grow your business yourself, so they often release open source designs which are free for everyone to use for the good of society.