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Editorial

 
 Spotting new opportunities 

 By Dhaval Valia

As the economy slows, channels will have to look for new emerging opportunities and there are plenty of them around us.

Digital Signage is one such opportunity that is waiting to be exploited. All around us, we have witnessed an explosion of OOH (out-of-home) advertising—in restaurants, malls, within commercial buildings—with media marketing firms aiming to capture as many eyeballs at every place possible.
I recently visited a mall in Mumbai where a digital kiosk allows users to download ring tones on their mobile phones through Bluetooth without any physical interface. Making digital signages interactive using Bluetooth and Wi-Fi is on every media marketers’ mind today.
This presents vast opportunities for all kinds of players from resellers of large LCD screens and custom
software developers to systems integrators and solutions providers.
The second emerging market is that of car PC solutions. There are strong drivers for this segment to take off. DTH operators have turned their focus on providing TV and on-demand video to car owners. In
metros, several car owners spend a good 3-4 hours every day commuting between home and office and wouldn’t mind a doze of visual entertainment.
Additionally, with GPS systems getting affordable, many car owners will also want to have these installed in their cars. Many car owners already have MP3 players in their automobiles. So wouldn’t it be great to have a PC that will provide all these features bundled in one.
The other emerging opportunity is that of providing RFID and barcode solutions. With the retail sector becoming more organized, logistics planning and inventory management will become paramount. Its here that RFID and barcode solutions will see a lot demand. The point-of-sales solutions market, although big, hasn’t seen many solutions provider participate in the opportunity.
Rather than getting bogged down by economic slowdown look out for niche areas of opportunities that would help you grow. Put your money where the opportunity is!