The future of tablets

Much of the excitement around tablets may have dispersed, but they still offer operators an important revenue stream and opportunity for innovation

When Apple released its first generation iPad in 2010, many in the tech industry proclaimed the device a “laptop killer”, saying it would revolutionise the way users interact with personal computers. More than five years on and the jury is still out on exactly how much tablets have changed user habits and how important the devices will be going forward.

Although sales are slowing, tablets are already too prevalent for operators to disregard from a product perspective. Most have done a reasonable job so far on the device, usually in the context of a responsive mobile website which adapts to a device of any size. Yet when we look at what is on offer in terms of dedicated, optimised tablet products, there are slim pickings. With around half of people in the UK now regularly using a tablet, up from a third in 2013, are these operators missing an opportunity?

“I think there is still an opportunity for operators on tablet,” Eric Opara, an analyst at Edison Investment Research, says. “Although tablets do come under the mobile banner, the experience on tablets is more akin to what you’d get on desktop. They have bigger screens, so if you take the bingo vertical, you can have a chat room on the side and your slot games constantly visible to the player. You simply cannot do that on smartphones,” he adds.

The tablet has all too often been lost within broader mobile categorisation, but it is important to understand the very different user habits compared to smartphone. While proximity may be king when it comes to most mobile devices, the tablet is more often than not accessed in the home. A survey in June by Bitkom found that a staggering 91% of tablet users said they mostly used their device at home. Operators have poured huge resources into chasing users on the go, ensuring they can place a bet with minimum fuss while down the pub or on the train. In 2015, an important part of the mobile equation is understanding how these users interact with devices within their own homes.

Bingo in bed

One vertical which has traditionally performed well on tablet is bingo. Marin Muyser, managing director of Dazzletag Entertainment brand Bingocams, says this is for a number of reasons, not just down to the way bingo is presented on mobile but also related to how users want to play the game. “Tablet is incredibly important for people who play bingo,” Muyser says. “Users often do other things when playing. They play bingo in front of the TV, or in bed in the evenings where it can be difficult to get a laptop.”

Most bingo operators tend to report a higher share of revenues from tablet than you see from sportsbook or casino. In Bingocams’ case, Muyser estimates that of the 40% of total revenues which come from mobile, tablet accounts for around 55%. Elsewhere it is a similar story. Mecca Bingo reports that iOS revenues are still split in favour of iPhone, but that around 40% comes from iPad users. When you consider that Apple sells iPhones at roughly five times the rate it sells iPads, it is clear that tablet users are high value customers across the sector.

For a vertical where integrated side-games and a prominent social element are important drivers of both revenue and engagement, the extra screen real estate a tablet offers over a smartphone has proved particularly appealing in the mobile space. “With our slots a lot of people use smartphones, but because of the bingo interface, you need a bigger screen. There is more going on with the chat so that extra space is important,” Muyser remarks.

Richer gaming experience

From a gaming perspective, tablets can also offer developers greater scope and power to create more immersive experiences. With the egaming sector looking closely at eSports and its enviable engagement rates, it is important to realise that the complexity of many popular eSports titles simply isn’t replicable on a smartphone. A tablet, however, packs the power to develop more impressive content.

“There’s no doubt that the larger the screen and form factor, the richer the gaming experience,” Neill Whyte, Microgaming’s head of product channels, explains. “We know that the extra real estate over a smartphone allows us to deliver more contextual information through the player lobby, such as our game information cards. And we can utilise the higher screen resolution and more powerful hardware on tablets to deliver more enhanced features in games, as well as crisper HD graphics.”

Whyte believes the opportunities with tablets lie in the ability for software suppliers to produce more intricate and immersive content. He points to the firm’s live dealer offering, where he says the greater real estate has allowed for a richer experience overall. On the slots side, he highlights the growing use of haptic technology, which provides a sense of touch by applying forces, vibrations and motions to the user, as a way of increasing player engagement on tablets, although this technology is becoming more prevalent on smartphones too.

While much recent gaming, slots and casino content has been focused around users’ “snacking” habits, where a player might log a number of short sessions through the course of the day, tablets tend to offer a chance for longer user engagement. Whyte supports this view as demonstrated by longer session times on tablet over smartphones. If operators are not serving these users adequately on tablet, they are missing out on an important revenue stream.

Sporting chance

While most major sportsbook operators have optimised for tablet over the past couple of years, sports betting is rarely a context in which the tablet is talked about in the game-changing terms that were thrown around upon its release.

Last year former Paddy Power CEO Patrick Kennedy said tablet would be “central” to Paddys’ future growth, and the operator does continue to dedicate development resources to its iPad app, with the most recent update coming in September when further cash out functionality was added. Meanwhile last December, Ladbrokes launched a tablet-optimised version of its iOS sportsbook as part of the operator’s broader Mobenga roll out. At the time the then director of mobile Andrew Bagguley told eGR Mobile Intelligence that the release was the first of a number of new tablet products the operator had in the pipeline as it looked to continue its push on the platform.

However, it can be tough to gain traction. Sports betting’s transactional nature has tended to mean users have favoured the additional mobility of a smartphone. The prevalence of mobile-focused sportsbook products, particularly cash out, have further optimised the experience for those who carry their device at all times – a trait rarely seen with tablet users. But the scale of interest on the channel compared to that of smartphones is clear; Paddys is one of the few operators to offer a dedicated iPad app in the App Store, but it has garnered just 855 reviews compared to the more than 10,000 enjoyed by the iPhone app.

Nonetheless, there does appear to be an opportunity for operators to do more, particularly when it comes to certain sportsbook features which have struggled to adapt to smartphone. Ladbrokes’ iPad product, for instance, includes its ‘Watch & Bet’ service which allows users to live stream and place bets from the same page. With such a feature remaining difficult to pull off on the smaller screen of a smartphone, tablets can carve out their own space within the mobile landscape.

Heavy investment

In many respects it is a triumph of the tablet that just five years on from launch, it now feels very much a part of the broader mobile ecosystem, even if it doesn’t excite operators in the way it may have back in 2012. However, with the market still developing – even if sales might be slowing – it would be too soon for operators to give up on the channel in favour of newer devices.

“The tablet market is still being defined and developed; after all, the modern tablet market is only about five years old,” says Whyte at Microgaming. “Despite a reported drop in sales over the past 12 months, it’s promising to see that the giants of the tech world are continuing to invest heavily in tablets; both Microsoft and Apple have released new models in the last year, trying to snag the largest slice of the tablet pie.” Whyte says tablets remain an important mobile line for Microgaming, adding that the firm will continue to invest across the full spectrum of mobile devices, whether that be tablet, smartphone or wearables.

Opara says that while he isn’t seeing operators focusing on developing new products specifically for tablet, they are beginning to think about the device as an alternative to desktops. If operators can begin to find answers to the big question behind tablets – where exactly do they fit within the wider mobile space? – then there are opportunities to be had across the verticals.