At the opening night of “All Things Matters”, Samsung announced that it will be launching Project Glued (working name), a video-on-demand service application (app) in Q3 2014 through its Media Solutions Centre in Southeast Asia (MSCSEA).

With Project Glued, fans of television drama series will be able to choose from a selection of curated shows, available across Samsung’s smartphones and tablets, and enjoy full-length TV series from the US and UK. All content will be available in HD quality with two convenient modes of viewing – streaming and downloading.

“Our upcoming entertainment service addresses the needs of today’s viewers who are more discerning about their TV viewing habits. They are always on-the-go, require content on demand and expect to have it available on their mobile device,” said Nicholas Wodtke, Vice President, Mobile Solution Centre, Samsung Southeast Asia & Oceania. ”We are excited to be introducing a new video-on-demand product to the market and delighting our Samsung mobile consumers.”

Samsung is relentlessly innovating new technologies, raising annual sales of US$216.7 billion. According to Opera Mediaworks, Samsung devices drove the majority of global phablet traffic, most of it originating from countries in Asia.

The company’s recently released study on phablet users identified how media consumption habits differ from those of smartphone and tablet users, as well as how their receptivity to mobile ads changes throughout the course of a day.

The study utilized data from Opera’s mobile ad platform that serves 64 billion impressions a month, reaching 500 million users through 14,000 mobile sites and apps and even takes into consideration mobile devices that have roughly the same screens size ( between five and seven inches).

• Phablet users skew closer to smartphone users than tablet users in the types of media they consume. Yet their behavior is distinct enough to warrant its own profile, the company found.
• Social networking is the top category (constituting 53.8% of impressions), just as it is on smartphones. But, it is much higher than the Q1 global average of all mobile devices (27.2% of impressions).
• Unlike smartphone users, who use their device to consume Sports and News & Information content, phablet users’ consumption in these categories is fairly low.
• Despite the bigger screen size, phablets are not replacing tablets when it comes to Games or Music, Video & Media — tablets still far outpace phablets in these categories.

Opera Mediaworks also examined the volume (ad impressions) and engagement levels (click-through rate) on traffic in the United States over a 24-hour period. While phablets are still an emerging market, and traffic volumes are relatively low, Samsung devices drove, as said, the majority of global phablet traffic, with the majority of this traffic originating from countries in Asia. T

The study reveals further that:

• Phablet traffic volume is highest in the morning (9 am-12 pm), but receptivity to ads is very low. Traffic then dips for the rest of the day, but engagement lifts significantly, peaking during the evening hours (8 pm -10 pm).
• As expected, tablet use is highest in the evening, as users are away from work and in “lean back” mode at home. However, engagement levels on ads in the evening cannot match those on phablets.
• Engagement on both phablets and tablets is low in the early evening hours (5 pm -7 pm).

An idea I really like is the fact that Project Glued will also introduce an interesting feature called Gift, allowing customers to share access to purchased TV shows - including full seasons of curated TV shows – with multiple friends and family up to 6 people over a 24 hour period.

Anyway, Samsung’s Project Glued can be downloaded for free from Samsung Apps and the Google Play store from Q3 2014 in Philippines and Singapore, and we will see how it will be accepted, considering all the findings of Opera’s study. Samsung announced that the video-on-demand app will be available on GALAXY Smartphones and tablet devices, including the Galaxy S5, Galaxy S4, Galaxy Grand 2, Galaxy Note PRO, Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition, Galaxy Note 8.0, Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy Tab PRO, Galaxy Tab 3 and Galaxy Mega.

By Daniela La Marca