Uni project, your input is wanted!

FosterK

FosterK

FosterK

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Myself and a group of colleagues at uni are working on a project, with an eye to setting up a business.

In essence, we're looking at renting out tablet PCs, loaded with media to make your journey a bit less boring. We're looking at having films, games and other such fun stuff on the tablets.

There's a lot more to it than that, but before we flesh it out, we could do with some data to look at - as such, if you could take two minutes to fill out a quick questionnaire for us, it'd be greatly appreciated!

dead link

(and before someone says, I realise asking this on a technology-based forum will skew the data a bit - we're taking that into account!)

Cheers!
 
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Hmm, find the business concept odd as you'll have to cover losses, make sure there isn't inappropriate material for certain people on there etc,...

kd
 
Answered this for you. Not for me, I'd be put off with the worry about damaging it. Even with a comprehensive insurance policy (on your part) I really don't want to have the frustration of dealing with that.

Wouldn't copyright also be an issue?
 
in theory its a great idea. however, i think your selling it to the wrong people. every flight ive been on has had pretty good in flight entertainment, even the in flight entertainment on the san francisco to las vegas flight i did was half decent.

however, car journeys (or just journeys by road in general) are notoriously boring, especially if your a young kid sitting in the back of an old car where the most exciting thing to do is play i spy.

i havent done any long train journeys, but i would expect its the same as with car journeys: bring your own entertainment or get thoroughly bored, so perhaps you could poke your nose into that market as well.

ps, i did the survey for you :)
 
Would be a nightmare to control. Think of all the things that you'd have to account for.

1. You'd need to store the tablets somewhere secure
2. You'd need to account for stolen items and lost items
3. People will abuse the system just like they do with the construction hire system
4. You'd need a fraud protection system in place to stop yourselves getting scammed
5. You'd need software on there that can be age restricted based on the user or only let 18+ hire them, and its down to their discretion. If that were the case you'd need a disclaimer which is paperwork otherwise a parent could come back and try to sue you for saying 'xyz material was on the device and i wasn't aware of this and now my child is traumatised'. This is claim capital, aside from America.
6. Your main audience, those who drive long distances/fly abroad, would most likely rather buy the device than rent it and risk damaging it
7. What would your costs be? What would be the term of rental and the duration of rental?

All of those need to be factored. In my opinion, its not feasible at all. Especially considering over the next few years tablet prices will drop given advances in the sector which will therefore mean you'll have to bring down your charges to make yourselves more attractive as a business.
 
COPYRIIIIIIIIGHT! Depending on the content you intend to put on it, if it's Music, films or something that is usually a paid service You'll invariably end up paying some form of royalty every time you loan them out, won't you?
 
Just wanted to say thanks to all those who have filled it out so far, as well as for all the responses in this thread. Useful information and ideas guys, and a lot of points I will be bringing up at the next meeting - age restrictions for example.

Had some VERY interesting responses to the questionnaire I have to say, most of which being useful points and information for us. That said, it would appear that there's one guy on OcUK who's education terminated at playschool, thinks provided in-flight entertainment could be better with oral sex (no arguments there), brings a ***** onboard for entertainment, isn't interested in rented tablets because they're islamic, and are wants to see scat on the inflight entertainment.

Needless to say, I doubt we'll consider that set of data.


Anyway, for those of you who would like to know a bit more, and without giving too much away, I'll give you the skinny on where we're at now.

We'd be looking to get bespoke tablets produced for us, including a folding case/stand that provides extra protection and battery life, among other things - we can have this done for a lot less than you'd think. Furthermore, bespoke software - we don't want users ******* the tablets up by messing with setting and such.

We've considered that we need to make everything as simple as possible for users, from a usage perspective, as well as the actual transaction and service provided.

The business model itself is aimed at budget airline passengers, the no-frills type.

We've already looked into media licensing, insurance and various other factors too.

As far as advances in technology and price drops come into the equation, we're cognisant of that and think we've got a method of factoring it into our business plan.

Where distribution, security, storage, and other finer details are concerned, I'm afraid I'm going to keep my gob shut. The concept we've come up with largely addresses those issues, and it's what sets our idea apart from similar tablet rental services that we've researched.

To those who still have their doubts, I'd like to hear them. Over the past week, members of our team have come up with some data and figures through research, other questionnaires and contact with various organisations, and frankly, the figures we've come up with seem too good to be true to me.

So yeah, I would like to know any points people might have to make. I'm not promising an answer, there's likely a lot we still have to consider as it is. I'd just like some good points that we may have missed to take to the next meeting we have.

Cheers again to all those who have responded/posted.
 
FosterK said:
Had some VERY interesting responses to the questionnaire ... it would appear that there's one guy on OcUK who's education terminated at playschool, thinks provided in-flight entertainment could be better with oral sex (no arguments there), brings a ***** onboard for entertainment, isn't interested in rented tablets because they're islamic, and are wants to see scat on the inflight entertainment.
Click to expand...

this is GD, why are you surprised :p
 
Over time you don't really want to be pitching to consumers, you want to pitching to airlines. Get ryan-air to offer the service when you buy a flight, let them take a cut. Boom. I want in :)
 
Aside from the above, you don't want to discuss so much on a public forum....

Oh and I filled in the questionaire thingy
 
For me I think I'd rent one if I was on a few hour train journey if it was priced at around £2 and you could pick it up at the station and return it at the station I got off at but I don't see the practicality of that..
Good luck anyway
 
Terriable questionable. Air traffic isn't a yes or a no. Some offer in flight entertainment some don't. Some have a great service, some don't.

Most are slowly upgrading their planes and the systems are extensive and good, with lots of new content.


As to a business idea, I can't see it working.
Cost to insure/protect your hardware, especially when abroad.
Having to pay for several weeks when you only want it for the flight. Unless you have a kiosk at every airport.
Flights having entertainment.
Most people own smart phones and/or mp3 players.
Many more have laptops.
Tablets is a huge growth sector so slice of the pie is already decreasing every year.

Biggest issue which will kill this idea.
Drm on films and you won't be licensed to use it for business and show to everyone.
Which means you either have to buy the film every time you rent it to someone, or talk to the producers and agree a deal. This I can't see how a start up business can get round. When huge players like YouTube and amazon are struggling. You can't even buy films on android yet. Let alone a way of purchasing for rental copies on any digital service.
Most flights have no electronic equipment rules, although cabin crew ignore it. Last few planes I have been on, haven't just said no electronic equipment at takeoff/landing, but no electronic equipment to be turned on at any point. Everyone did though and cabin crew didn't care. But being a business is a bit different.


Like a lot of ideas, great in theory. Torpedoed by reality. I just can't see how you can get content.
 
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UPDATE: Awesome news.

Holy thread revival batman!

Just wanted to say thankyou once again to all those that helped out in this survey. In the end, this constituted a piece of preliminary research for the project; we did a LOT more research over the course of the year, eventually coming together as a 27,000 word business plan. Needless to say, the entire concept has developed a hell of a lot since posting this thread, fleshed out and come together.

Through the course of developing the idea, we've been in touch with all sorts of market players and industry experts, had interest in the idea from easyJet, flyBe and BA. So obviously we've been pushing the idea.

This past weekend saw Startup Weekend take place in Newcastle. We were there and came out with a prize for the most innovative startup idea. (see http://newcastle.startupweekend.org). The prize is £10,000 worth of business mentoring, as well as fast track access to £10k startup capital, with a further £150k on offer if we get it off the ground. Just as a bit of background, a lot of big ideas have come out of startup weekends across the globe - Dropbox for example.

Met up today with our course lecturer, big grin spread across his face when we told him, and we've scheduled a meeting in which to break down the monolithic questionmark that now faces us in terms of starting this as a business; we'll have the full support of the uni, our own expertise and networks from these types of events, the mentoring on offer and startup capital support. Also expecting a lot of coverage from the uni, they love hearing success stories like this. Exciting times indeed!

So once again, a huge thankyou to everyone who got involved with this survey! And watch this space!

Edit: Any chance a mod could update the thread title with "Update: Awesome news!" at the end?
 
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