[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFUXq7DdGHE&feature=player_profilepage]YouTube - Comcast's Neil Smit Demos Xfinity TV App for iPad at Web 2.0 [w/ John Battelle][/ame]
GigaOM reports today on the huge popularity of the various cableTV iPad apps that have been released over the past few months. According GigaOM, Time Warner Cable revealed in an earnings call on Thursday that its iPad app was downloaded 360,000 times during its first month of release, and its success appears to be shared by other cable TV apps across the board in the US, with Cablevision seeing 50,000 downloads in its first five days, and Comcast revealing to GigaOM that its Xfinity TV app has had more than 1.5 million downloads since it was launched last November. One very interesting question raised by GigaOM is whether or not the popularity of these apps might even be responsible for customers deciding to stay with their cable operator, when they previously might have left. According to GigaOM, Time Warner Cable only lost 65,000 subscribers in the past quarter (and actually gained subscribers in March), which is in contrast to the last two quarters of last year, where it lost 155,000 and 141,000 subscribers respectively. It’s probably a little too early to say if the iPad apps are the reason that customers are deciding to stay with their cable operator, but it’s entirely possible. Similar TV apps are also proving to be very popular in the UK, with Channel 4’s 4oD Catch Up sitting pretty at the top of the Free iPad Apps chart in the UK, and the BBC’s iPlayer still hanging around at number 5, several months since its release back in February.
Source: GigaOMCable Company iPad Apps Are Killing It: Apple News, Tips and Reviews «
