Dijit Acquires Miso, the second screen consolidation continues

Dijit, the company lead by CEO Jeremy Toeman which has developed second screen apps NextGuide and Dijit Remote TV, has announced the acquisition of GoMiso, Inc, developer of the Miso second screen app and its signature SideShows.

While this is an obvious continuation of the consolidation phase of the industry (see our research), what does it really mean for the ecosystem and the consumers?  NextGuide was launched in the fall of 2012 and quickly iterated on its UI and UX, creating a powerful consumer second screen app that provided very strong Seamless, Discovery, and Social features--strong enough that we segmented it as a multi-function app.  While Jeremy had discussed his roadmap for NextGuide in the Simple set of features to control the first screen, there had not been much attention paid to the Stimulating set of features that enhance the users experience while watching a show.  Essentially, consumers could use the app to find what they wanted to watch, launch it to the 2nd screen (and in some cases the 1st screen), and then leverage their social networks for sharing their view of that feature or to help them discover content.

Miso on the other hand was probably the first strong entrant into the Stimulating feature set, clearly being segmented in To Enhance category of apps.  However, they did not consistently create the SideShow experiences for a wide range of shows, and as a result, user interest languished.

The challenges for Jeremy and team going forward seem straight forward:

• how do they maintain their hallmark quality approach to a great UI/UX while integrating the Stimulating set of features into what is already a great Discovery app?
• how do they create SideShow ubiquity the way some of their competitors (zeebox, ConnecTV, etc) have done with their synchronized companion experiences?
• do they integrate the apps entirely or still offer consumers more focused experiences as well?
• how do they monetize all of it?

Regardless of how they approach it, I would assume that they won't release anything until the consumer experience has been well thought through.

Enjoy the weekend (and Super Bowl)!

@ChuckParkerTech

@S32Day