Adding up current 2013 gross shipments of digital tablets from all manufactures, the tablet market has quickly grown to be about the same size as the currently shrinking PC market. The tablet market is also witnessing rapid growth of desirable performance, useful features and handy apps, yet pricing remains attractive. This is potentially good news for businesses that are looking to fulfill their agendas with these practical devices for digital signage.

Many short or long term business objectives can be achieved using digital signage applications, which properly programmed, can bring greater efficiency, enhanced customer experience and potential cost savings for

• restaurant menus and ordering
• conference room management
• interactive kiosks in retail or service centers
• POS signage
• shelf talkers

Sam Ruggles, business solutions manager for an Android-powered digital door sign system, recently noted, “A key benefit of using digital tablets for door signs comes from the reduction of labor redundancies by automatically updating and displaying event and scheduling information using existing data.”

Ruggles makes reference to the networkability of digital tablets. Networkability provides access to databases of popular event management software (EMS) programs, such as, Microsoft Exchange Server/Outlook, Dean Evans EMS or MICROS Opera PMS, which gives digital tablets an instant source of vital event information to display at key locations for conference, meeting and training rooms—all automatically. This minimizes scheduling conflicts and participant confusion, empowering staff to do their jobs with greater effectiveness without putting more effort into it.

Just as we see with any digital device, there are a myriad of options and features that may or may not be useful in a business setting. That’s why it is important to consider selecting first a digital tablet vendor before splurging and buying a zillion units that may not fit your application.

A business should look for a vendor that is skilled at creating either Android or iOS apps that can be designed and customized to meet specific needs. Moreover, this vendor should know how to properly network the device, and if necessary, write coding to achieve system integration. This is a vital key to making digital tablets work smarter for your business.

Besides expert programming to interface tablets to existing databases, EMS, PMS and POS systems, a valued tablet vendor can also provide mounting devices that keep the digital tablets secured in a public environment. These mounting devices can secure tablets on walls, shelves, counters, and most recently, on stand-alone pedestals that create quasi-kiosk applications. 

Another value-add from a competent vendor would involve the selection process for tablet hardware that best suits the needs of your business. Some tablets come with nifty ports that can enable system installers to plug in P-o-E (Power-over-Ethernet) to simplify the installation. Other useful features may include high resolutions screens and mini USB ports. Some features like cameras and docks, which are handy for consumers, only add cost and weight for business applications that may not require these features.

The fact is, there are endless ways digital tablets can help fulfill business agendas. The key to making this product work for you is finding a vendor that scales to your needs, has the expertise to program custom apps, and can properly integrate the hardware into a system for a winning solution.

A new report from NPD DisplaySearch finds a sequential quarterly decline in flat panel LCD displays that are commonly used in public display applications, but the popularity of the same panels among consumers means the falloff in shipments isn't necessarily bad news for digital signage.

Global shipments of flat panel LCD displays used for digital signage and other public display applications declined in the fourth quarter of 2011, marking the first sequential quarterly decline in three years, according to recently released data from NPD DisplaySearch, a global research and consulting firm specializing in the display supply chain.

The decline comes after a two-year period of impressive growth for the public display (also called the "large flat panel display") category. Between 2009 and 2011, this market segment witnessed 65 percent growth in unit volume production, the display market research and analysis firm said.

The data, part of the "NPD DisplaySearch Quarterly FPD Public Display Shipment and Forecast Report," show LCD display shipments were pulled down by a dropped in the 26-inch to 37-inch category.

The decline raises an obvious question: "Is the public display market in general, and digital signage market in particular, sliding back into recession?" The answer, however, is far less clear.

As NPD DisplaySearch acknowledges, the sequential drop came in what it describes as "the least well-defined" slice of the market, namely the 26-inch to 37-inch space. Why is this the least well defined category? Simply stated, this segment is popular with the flat-screen TV buying public as well as with integrators who often install consumer TVs for digital signage applications. Many panels used for public display fall in the 32-inch category. Thus, without a clear delineation between the 32-inch displays used for digital signage and those used to watch television in the home, it's not possible to unequivocally attribute the sequential quarterly decline to digital signage and public display.

As Chris Connery, DisplaySearch VP of PC and Large Format Commercial Displays put it in a press release announcing the report, "The challenge comes when trying to fully quantify these markets since many times commercial installers use consumer-grade TVs for quick hang-and-bang solutions."

So, if it is not possible to tell from the data whether the sequential decline indicates a rocky road ahead for public display and digital signage, what information of value can be taken away from the latest NPD DisplaySearch findings for those with an interest in the digital signage market?

I would suggest the findings draw attention to the importance of affordable, flat-panel LCD TVs to the growth digital signage. To be sure, certain digital signage applications require higher-end, professional features, such as high brightness backlights, smaller bezels, and even touch-screen capability for hybrid, interactive digital signage. But a large number of applications don't.

Relatively inexpensive consumer flat-panel HDTV sets using LCD screens are more than adequate for many uses -particularly when compared to the heavy, boxy, low-resolution CRT-based displays they are replacing.

Rather than look at the sequential quarterly decline with fear about the road ahead, it may be more prudent to look at it with a bit of caution and also a recognition that the decline may be more attributable to a falloff on the consumer side of the equation.

It may also make sense to understand that there might be a silver lining for the digital signage market. After all, if the decline is occurring because consumers are buying fewer units, vendors will have an incentive to lower display prices, which will make it more affordable for businesses, retailers, corporations and other entities to consider adding digital signage to their communications strategies.

Smartphones and tablets present digital signage with new opportunities to evolve.

The broad adoption by consumers of media tablets and smartphones, such as the Apple iPad and iPhone, is certain to impact digital signage in ways that today aren't fully imaginable.

However, there are a few important data points about these devices that offer a clue as to what some of the effects will be and their potential magnitude.

First, the number of media tablets and smartphones in use is staggering. In the two years since they have become available, 55 million iPads have reached consumers' hands. IHS iSuppli forecasts 275 million tablets worldwide (all tablets, not just iPads) will be sold by 2015. At home in America, 65 percent of the population, some 200 million, will have smartphones and/or tablets by 2015, an In-Stat study says.

Those numbers mean that whatever the ultimate impact will be of these devices on digital signage, it's bound to be huge.

Second, these devices are changing how people like to interact with technology. Multi-touch screens, a critical component of the success of tablets and smartphones, will likely become an important component of some digital signage applications, too. After all, people by the millions are being trained by their devices on how to interact with screens.

Soon the desire to have multi-touch will shift from a want to an expectation in the minds of consumers who access information via a screen. This naturally will carry over to digital signage, particularly hybrid digital signage used in interactive kiosk applications.

It's worth noting that the popularity of multi-touch is nearly overwhelming -literally. In late March, IHS iSuppli reported that the "runaway success" of the iPad and iPhone has created a boom in the shipment of touch screen display. That in turn will cause the market for the silicon that makes multi-touch possible to nearly triple in size over the next five years -from 865 million touch screen controller integrated circuits in 2010 to 2.4 billion in 2015.

Smartphones and tablets also will likely affect digital signage by giving this emerging communications medium a way to reach out to consumers in the proximity of a digital sign and wirelessly deliver information, coupons and QR codes. With so many smartphones and tablets in the hands of consumers, doing so seems like a natural way for marketers and other communicators to extend the digital signage experience beyond the public square and into the purses and pockets of the general public.

To be sure, my crystal ball is as clear as the next fellow's. But it seems to me you don't need to be Nostradamus to look a little bit down the road and see that smartphones and tablets will play an increasingly important role in the direction of digital signage.

While predicting exactly how these new devices will shape future digital signage developments is impossible to say, it is certain that digital signage vendors and the people who communicate with these signs will be hard at work seeking to find ways to benefit from the swelling ranks of their users.

Smart TVs with interfaces based on voice control and other cool technology may one day change how digital signs integrate interactivity.

It wasn't too long ago when a digital sign consisted of a TV set and a VHS deck or DVD player. In what seems like a flash, tube TVs are passé, and VHS cassette players are beginning to look a little like antiques.

Driven largely by the overwhelming popularity of HDTV in America (recent research from Leichtman Research Group finds high-def sets are now in two-thirds of U.S. homes), flat panel displays are achieving ubiquity. Along the way, they transformed the look and appeal of digital signage.

As striking as that change has been, digital signs appear to be on track to see an equally dramatic change over the next few years, once again driven by the consumer television set. At the recently concluded 2012 International CES in Las Vegas, several television vendors rolled out their vision of what a "smart" TV should look like.

Among them were Samsung, LG, Sony and Lenovo, each with their own versions of smart TVs. Google already has taken a run at this market, and Apple is long rumored to be working on its own smart TV with a consumer interface similar to its Siri personal assistant for the iPhone 4S that would let owners control their TV with their voice. Samsung, too, reportedly is at work on adding voice and motion control to new televisions.

For the interactive digital signage industry, these new smart TVs will open doors to greater possibilities for digital sign-based interactivity and further reshape consumer expectations. How long will it be before we see digital signs that allow a hotel guest not only search a list of available restaurants from a digital sign in the lobby but also make reservations simply by speaking to the screen?

Beyond voice interaction with smart TVs, what other benefits might this new generation of televisions bring to digital signage interactivity? Perhaps, these TVs will lead to easier syncing with personal smart phones and tablets offering the public interactive takeaways from the sign. Or, they might make it possible to migrate the digital signage experience from outside the home into the living room -sort of an offshoot of the TV Everywhere concept being promoted these days by pay TV operators, such as cable TV companies.

To be sure, my crystal ball is no clearer than anyone else's. However, it seems obvious that this next-generation television technology will open up new and exciting possibilities for those who communicate via interactive mobile devices. I'm not suggesting these opportunities to employ a higher degree of interactivity will be available in the short term. But when they do come, what it means to communicate with a digital sign will undergo a dramatic transformation.

Where we are today and where we might be headed in the not-too-distant future with this new technology might be as stark of a contrast as the difference between Tom Hanks feverishly plugging in numbers to an early microcomputer in his role as astronaut James Lovell in "Apollo 13" and Leonard Nimoy as Spock saying from his science station aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, "Computer, compute to the last digit the value of pi," and the computer replying: "You're kidding, right?"

Having access to remote control over display functions like "on" and "off" can save time, effort and expense.

Sometimes what should be obvious isn't so till someone points it out. For instance, just the other day I was listening to a favorite radio program that I stream on the Internet when the topic of surprise endings of films came up.

The sidekick of the show's host identified the movie "Planet of the Apes" as one with a surprise ending. But the real surprise of that radio segment came when it became clear that while the sidekick recognized the movie had a surprise ending, he had no clue that the surprise was Charlton Heston discovered he was actually on Earth throughout the film.

When the host of the show understood his sidekick's failure to see the obvious, the real fun began. He had loads of laughs over the fact that his sidekick -from the time he first saw the movie, released some 40 years before- had not recognized the obvious till that very moment on air.

But haven't we all at one time or another found ourselves in exactly the same position as the sidekick -not recognizing the obvious, which stares us in the face, till someone else points it out to us?

Such is the case with digital signage network management and remote control over simple display functions, such as "on" "off" and "volume." Many displays come with RS232 ports that allow these functions -and others, such as changing the channel, which probably isn't important in this context- to be controlled remotely. This interface and the need for control over these functions should be obvious but might go overlooked without an understanding of why controlling them is so important.

Imagine having dozens or even hundreds of displays scattered throughout a university campus, shopping mall or sports arena. Having the ability to turn individual monitors, sets of monitors, or all monitors on or off at a given time is a good way to manage display life, minimize energy consumption and even play an important role in targeting vital information when emergency situations arise.

Rather than having to walk the venue and manually turn monitors off in the evening and on in the morning, digital signage network administrators can rely on serial remote control of basic on/off functionality to save time and improve operational efficiency.

When an emergency arises -particularly during off hours when only skeleton crews may be occupying a given building- having the ability to remotely turn on displays previously shut off for the evening so warnings about emergency weather conditions or other contingencies can be displayed can become a matter of life and death.

Remote control over volume can be important as well. Sometimes professors or teachers in an educational setting, passersby at public venues, like malls, and even employees in corporate settings may manually adjust the volume of the display outside the digital signage network administrator's desired level.

As with on/off functionality, controlling volume from a central location through serial commands to the display reduces the time needed to make adjustments and saves a lot of legwork.

Is the importance of controlling on/off and volume functionality obvious? Probably. But for those who may have been having a "Planet of the Apes" moment when it comes to having remote control from a network operations center over these basic functions, I hope this column produced an important "ah ha."

From iPhones to ATMs and other self-service kiosks, consumers are demonstrating their love affair with touch and interactivity.

I recently was having lunch with a friend who excitedly told me he had signed up to be one of the first to buy an Apple iPad. While he liked the prospect of owning a full-color tablet to access and consume all of his favorite media, what he instinctively knew he would love about the gadget is its touch-screen interface.

Already an owner of an Apple iPhone, he was well familiar with navigating his device with a simple touch, scanning through menus with the flip of his fingertip against the screen and blowing up a picture to a larger size by touching the screen with the tips of his thumb and forefinger and pulling them apart. Navigating around his new iPad in the same fun way, undoubtedly will feel comfortably familiar.

My friend is one of the millions of people around the world who today enjoy the fast, friendly feeling of control made possible through touch and interactivity. Many of these touch-screen devotees were first exposed to the concept of interacting with technology in the form of a computer mouse used to point and click through an interface to complete a desired task. (Thank you Xerox PARC for the concept of a GUI and Stanford Research Institute for the mouse). After years of whetting their appetite for this sort of interactive control over technology, it's easy to see why consumers now have a deep love affair with interactive touch-screen control.

Just look around. Touch screens are everywhere. Think about it. You likely are not going to spend more than a day before you encounter touch screen interactivity in the form of an ATM, self service kiosk, MP3 player, GPS navigation device, cell phone or even on TV in CNN's Situation Room or in the movies like "Minority Report."

Research firm DisplaySearch has quantified the popularity of touch screens. It released a report in May '09 finding about 220 million touch screens were shipped for use in mobile phones in 2008 -or 16 percent of the mobile phone market. By 2015, the research firm forecasts the penetration rate of touch screens in mobile phones will grow to about 40 percent. And that's only one slice of the interactive, touch-screen pie.

I bring this up because I am a big proponent of identifying important trends and positioning oneself to benefit from where that trend is headed. So when it comes to digital signage, professional communicators would do well to consider the potential of digital signage panels to tap into the public's love affair with touch-screen interfaces and add interactivity to their digital signs when appropriate.

Consider a large casino or hotel lobby. How much easier and efficient is it for patrons to access and staff to convey way finding information or ballroom event schedules than via interactive digital signs? Simply by automatically tapping into the booking and management software used by the hotel or casino, a digital signage controller can extract the appropriate data and create the right digital signage page before it's required. Thus, when Aunt Martha wants to find out where the chrysanthemum contest is being held, the digital signage controller has already gathered that data from the facility management software, created the page and is ready to display "Ballroom C."

Best of all, when interactive control is not required, that same digital sign can mimic a traditional digital sign and playback scheduled media to promote shops, restaurants and other amenities offered by the facility until once again being called into interactive service.

Simply by recognizing the public's fascination with interactive touch control, those designing digital signage installations can add interactivity to make any given digital sign more useful to the public and more effective in the eyes of the marketers, advertisers and other professional communicators who intend to use the sign to achieve their goals.