TDG Research: The Appeal of Mobile Video: Reading Between the Lines

Dale Gilliam at TDG Research writes a thought piece on mobile video and takes a look at the latest headline grabbing survey on the topic, this time from RBC Capital Markets. Gilliam picks apart RBC's leading questions, such as "I am not interested in watching TV programs or movies on my handheld device, True or False"

He writes that "Not surprisingly, 76% of respondents answered "true" - in other words, they were NOT interested in watching TV programs or movies on their handheld device." While the press ate up the results, Gilliam comments that "black and white/true or false research is not the best way to understand consumer interest in novel services such as mobile video."

Gilliam then proceeds to pick apart the research, outlining the three problems he has with the survey and supports his arguments with data points derived from TDG's research on the subject. He concludes with:

evaluating the appeal of novel services such as watching video on a handheld device is much more complicated than asking a simple true/false question. Too often evangelists and naysayers grab on to simplistic research in order to prematurely extol or condemn emerging services such as mobile video. That's too bad, especially when detailed research is available to evaluate accurately the nature of these new opportunities.