The 4th Screen

1)    What do we mean by the « 4th Screen »? What are the other 3 screens?

The fourth screen refers, in marketing, to small screen such as mobile phone or portable media player.
The four screen are:
- The movie screen
- Television
- Personal Computer
- Mobile phone

2)    What is « Location-based Services » (LBS)?

It is an application that you can find on phones, which use geographical position of the mobile device. Nowadays, most of the population use smartphones and applications that use LBS, for example when you want to find the closest Carl’s Junior next to your location.

3)    How does « mobile » connectivity impact marketing with regard to the use of social media?

Currently, everybody have Internet on their phone, and so access to social media as Facebook and Twitter. We are no longer passive consumers, but active participants.
Thanks to our phone, hundreds of millions of people have access to Facebook and twitter on real time to share and connect with people.
For example, if a person is waiting to long for a service in a store, the first reaction that we have is to tweet about the company, saying that we’ve been waiting too long. This will make a bad advertisement to the company, which can be seen by millions of people in real time. That’s why “mobile” connectivity impact marketing, and companies have to be careful with it.

4)   How does the 4th screen impact marketing strategy? Why might this be an opportunity for marketers? How might this pose a threat to marketing efforts?

The 4th screen impact marketing strategy because it’s a less expensive way for a company to advertise, and it’s seen by a lot more people in less time. But they should really pay attention to the fact that they have to personalize their platform so that they are recognizable.
But this can also be a threat because a bad advertisement is seen by a lot of people.

5)   Tablets like iPad are becoming increasingly popular and although there are plenty of early adopters there is still some resistance.

a- What are the reasons that so many have « jumped » and embraced tablets ?

Tablets are an easy way to stay in contact with the entire world with an easy access to Internet. These are also useful for all the people that spend a lot of time in public transports and want to work or watch a movie.

b- What are some reasons that many still resist the temptation to embrace mobile connectivity and or tablets ?

However, some people are still not embraced because Tablets are still expensive and most of them are wondering why they should buy one of them whereas they already have a computer.