Pro AV vendors have spent the past few months developing products for Apple’s new iPad. Tim Kridel investigates the device’s impact on the AV ecosystem.
Apple sold 300,000 iPads in the U.S. alone on April 3, the first day the product was available. But months before its launch, pro AV vendors were already developing products for the device – a sign that as with the iPod and the iPhone, integrators will need to support the iPad for applications ranging from control to media servers.
In fact, that need will be immediate for integrators that work with products that already support the iPhone or iPod.
“Because the iPad and the iPhone share a common software base, the same products that let you control your AMX system from an iPhone are going to work automatically on the iPad,” says Joe Andrulis, vice president of marketing at AMX.
There are several reasons why AV vendors have been so quick to develop iPad products:
- The iPod and, to a lesser extent, the iPhone have been successful enough in pro AV that vendors continue to develop new products for them. This success makes them confident that Apple’s hardware and operating system (OS) are robust enough for commercial use – something that can’t be said for many other products developed primarily for the consumer world.
- It’s relatively fast and inexpensive for a vendor to revamp its existing iPod/iPhone app for the iPad. As a result, there’s less risk than if it had to develop a product from scratch and then hope that iPad sales are strong enough to create a profitable market for that app. And if iPad sales remain brisk over the next few months, the vendor then can justify spending more resources to develop a version of its app that takes advantage of iPad features that aren’t available on the iPod and iPhone.
- The similarities between iPod and iPad software mean that vendors probably don’t have to worry about being surprised by iPad support costs, at least when it comes to product features that work on both devices. “It’s running on the same OS as the iPhone,” says AMX’s Andrulis. “Because of that, I don’t think we’re likely to see terrible, negative surprises with the software, which is the touchier part of the system” than the hardware.
- Shortly after Apple announced the iPad, surveys found that a significant number of potential buyers were considering using the device partly or entirely for business applications. For example, in a Zogby International poll, 52.3 percent said they’d most likely use an iPad or similar tablet-like device for work. That makes AV vendors confident that enterprises will have an installed base of iPads to sell into.
Even so, many vendors that have already announced iPad products say Apple’s new platform is mixed bag for them, integrators and end users.
Tight controlAnalysts and the suppliers of the iPad’s hardware predict 2010 world wide sales of 4 million to 7 million. By comparison, Apple sold 8.7 million iPhones and 21 million iPods in final three months of 2009.
It’s anyone’s guess whether the iPad is destined to become as ubiquitous as the iPod or a flop like the Pippin game console. That’s one concern for AV vendors and integrators: If iPad doesn’t have a big installed base, or if Apple becomes dissatisfied with sales to the point that it discontinues the product, then vendors, integrators and end users are left with an orphan product in their AV systems.
Another concern is the Apple’s historically tight control not just over its hardware and software – which it doesn’t license to other vendors – but also the third-party applications that can run on its devices and the process for buying and installing them. That’s the opposite of Linux and Windows devices, and it limits the ability of vendors and integrators to make the iPad viable for AV installations.
“You cannot have a configurable user interface (UI), so whatever you publish in the [Apple] App Store has to be fixed, and that’s no good for an custom system controller because every UI must be unique by definition,” says Rob Robinson, marketing director at Stardraw, whose Stardraw Control 2010 product now has iPad support . “So apps are just out. They’re not applicable.”
Apple also gets a 30 percent royalty on apps sold through its store. So unless an AV vendor is comfortable with that rate, one alternative is to use the iPad’s browser in a process that’s known as “Web services” or “Web apps”: Apple’s Safari browser has extensions that let developers strip off the address bar and other features, and the AV application basically becomes a Web site that it navigates to.
“It runs full screen and looks just like an app,” says Robinson, whose company has gone the Web services route. Neets Control – ZULU is another product using that approach.
For some vendors, yet another concern is that Apple designed the iPad to do a lot of things well, such as reading newspapers and checking e-mail, but pro AV applications aren’t among them. For example, just days after the iPad debut, Apple issued a bulletin acknowledging problems connecting to Wi-Fi networks, especially after the device wakes up from sleep mode.
That’s a major drawback when used for controlling an AV system, such as if the user has to wait several seconds or tinker with network settings just to do something as basic as muting volume. And with Apple’s iron-fisted control over hardware and software, vendors and integrators have few options for tweaking the iPad to overcome these drawbacks, which undermine the device’s ability to compete against AMX’s or Crestron’s purpose-built gear.
“They have Wi-Fi connections that have been carefully engineered to connect to the network very quickly,” says David Webster, CTO of RGB Communications, a U.K.-based distributor. “An iPod or an iPhone has no hard buttons, and it can take more than a few seconds to reconnect. So yes, [the iPad] can do it, but can it meet the user’s expectations of convenience, which is where AMX and Crestron pitch themselves? I think the answer is no.”
Displacing pro productsThe iPad could be a better fit for other applications. For example, with memory ranging from 16 GB to 64 GB, the iPad can store a lot of audio and video. So for some clients, it could be an attractive alternative to a €3,000-€7,000 audio server, especially if they already own an iPad, a big library of iTunes content or both. Indeed, that application is how many businesses already use the iPod, so it’s not a stretch to see the same strategy applying to the iPad, too.
Some vendors believe that despite its limitations, the iPad still has a shot at displacing some pro products, including touchpanels. If that’s the case, some vendors could use the iPad to chip away at the market shares of dominant rivals.
“I think the iPad will be a revolutionary step toward standard IT equipment being employed in pro AV applications,” says Carsten Steinecker, managing director of COMM-TEC. “The iPad makes us very enthusiastic that we can gain further ground against the legacy control companies, like AMX and Crestron. The iPad will help us get much more acceptance in commercial and residential applications.”
Some vendors are philosophical about the prospect of the iPad eroding the market for their more expensive, higher margin devices. At the very least, the iPad could increase pricing pressure on that gear, a trend that’s been playing out for years in the display sector as consumer gear ate into the pro equipment’s market.
“I have no doubt that it will displace some of the market,” says AMX’s Andrulis. “It’s part of the nature of being in the high-tech business. If you’re not ready to accept that the world is going to shift under you and that you’re going to have to find new ways to add value, you’re in the wrong business.”
If the iPad increases pricing pressure on some pro gear, then integrators could feel the pinch as their hardware margins shrink. Integrators and vendors could respond by refocusing on areas – particularly software and services – where they can make more money and even leverage the low-cost iPad to expand into new markets.
“Integrators will make their money on services,” says COMM-TEC’s Steinecker.
Vendors also could retrench in parts of the business that the iPad can’t reach. For example, in control, the iPad could displace touchpanels but not the rest of the hardware and software running a system.
New devices, new skillsMany PC vendors are developing iPad-like devices running Windows or Linux, and those bear watching as potential fits for pro AV. But regardless of the brand or OS, all of these devices have one thing in common: They’re yet another example of how AV and IT are converging, a trend that’s forcing everyone to look beyond their comfort zones in order to stay relevant – and in business.
In the case of the iPad, that means integrators need to learn how to work with Web services when designing control systems that include Apple’s product.
“Integrators still haven’t realised that they need to educate themselves in these type of skills,” Steinecker says. “Whenever they can, people prefer to sell what they’re used to selling: Crestron or AMX.”
If the iPad becomes a popular choice among pro AV end users, then vendors likely will feel pressure to revamp their user interfaces to match Apple’s slick design features, such as pinching and swiping images rather than punching buttons. That might not be easy, and the cost could be particularly difficult to recoup if the iPad is creating pricing pressure.
“Conventional controls system can’t do that,” says RGB’s Webster. “The effort of producing that would be very expensive, and recovering that cost would be very hard. The challenge is going to be how do we sell more expensive solutions that are actually more fit for purpose, especially when they don’t have the sex appeal and glossy looks of the graphical user interface? I think that’s a really tough question.”