Merchandised Smartphones Turned Into Teeny Video Walls For Mobile Retailers

April 18, 2023 by Dave Haynes

Mobile retailers have long been regarded as environments that would really benefit from digital signage technology because of the constant evolution of devices and subscription plans, but I hadn’t really thought of the various smartphones on display in stores being used as digital signs.

I came across a company called SensorMedia that does what it calls on-device digital media, a platform that can push pricing, plans and promotional messaging to demo smartphones in stores, as well as tablets and more conventional digital signs.

The company, located north of Toronto (Orangeville), is directly associated with another company that does anti-theft systems for electronics retailers – those hardened, tethered cradles on merchandising tables that allow people to pick up and look at working smartphones, but not walk off with them.

Software and solutions companies have for many years been adapting tablets that run on smartphone-first operating systems like Android and iOS for use as meeting room signs and merchandising displays, so this is no great technological leap. But I’ve not seen a lot of this done with handsets, and particularly not this demo of content (see video below) running across and between multiple devices.

“SmartCircle technology is more than a virtual billboard,” says the company on its website. “It also collects customer metrics, security and uptime status which ensures planogram compliance.”

Multi-tasking little screens as digital signage is kind of interesting, but I think the bigger thing here is addressing a major pain point for mobile retailers: using screens and data integration to stay on top of the steady changes in the features of phones and what’s part of carrier subscription plans.