Friday, June 14, 2013

Is the iPhone a good Second Screen?

When we started TOK.tv, we had a certainty: people will prefer to watch TV with friends, rather than alone.

We were convinced that they would also prefer talking to a friend, rather than being forced to type.

We ran a bunch of tests, with baseball, then football, then the Oscar night. The results proved it: talking is more fun than typing. Our users spend a long time talking with the app, compared to normal mobile app usage. We are talking 20 to 50 times more.

A second screen app on a tablet is not a mobile app, it is a couch app. That changes everything. It is closer to a desktop interaction, than a mobile one. However, it happens in a relaxed environment (on the couch, rather then sitting in front of a computer), which makes everything more fun.

TOK Baseball has been a great success. Over 30,000 downloads in two months, thousands of users coming back daily, with average talk time of 24 minutes. We reached the Top 6 Sports app in the App Store, in front of ESPN and big brands. We found out that the more our users talk, the more they come back, the longer they talk. Awesome.

I have to say we were hopeful it would happen, because we tested it for almost a year and we knew the user experience was great. Now, however, we are moving one step further. Into unchartered territory.

Today, we launched TOK Baseball for the iPhone. It is available on the App Store.

We have no clue how people are going to use our app on a smartphone. It is not a tablet, it is really a mobile device.

Are you going to use it on the couch as the tablet app? Or on the go? At the ballpark? On the train? Even when there is no TV?

Is a second screen app on a smartphone a mobile app or a couch app? I have no idea ;-)

It is going to be fun to find out. We have no test data, no experience... We have nothing. In a few months, we'll know a lot.

I promise I will report back as soon as I find out.

For now, please try it out and let me know.