Is Coin-Op Phoning It In?

There are many things you can do with smartphones, but ignoring them is not an option for the coin-op industry. This is unfortunate, because a good chunk of the industry seems either unaware of or resistant to the fundamental change (and risks) this relatively new technology represents. Of course operators see the threat of competition from apps like Angry Birds or Candy Crush, but few envision the opportunities.

However, coin-op need only look as far as the music industry to learn some high-value lessons. Resistant to change, the record labels began calling their lawyers when streaming music first appeared on the scene. Illegal downloaders were hunted down and prosecuted. A lot of ill will was created among music fans, the lawyers got rich, and downloading continued. Taylor Swift's notable success aside, the industry has yet to really recover.

The takeaway from the music industry is simple: nothing can stop, stall or slow the advance of technology, even high-priced lawyers on speed dial. Depending on your point of view, this is either disheartening or life affirming.

For street and FEC operators, the lessons have yet to be learned, and the opportunities recognized, when it comes to this new technology. In a typical tavern location, you may have 40 or 50 people walking through the doors on a single night, all with powerful computers in their pockets. For busy urban locations and popular FECs, the number can be double or triple that. And those tiny pocket computers are intimately linked to these patrons' lives. There is no aspect of their existence they do not manage, schedule, commemorate, communicate, or track without the assistance of their smartphones -- except their coin-op entertainment.

Given the relationship most users have with their phones, it is an obvious assumption that the closer a business gets to the processing, memory and wireless circuits of those phones, the closer it gets to its present and prospective customers. Although stated halfway cleverly, this is something to consider, reconsider and ponder. Those phones travel into and out of our locations. The things consumers store on them, and the ways in which they interact with those things, have value to them.

Of course coin-op has taken a few tentative steps toward smartphone integration, while digital jukeboxes have proven to be a perfect match. With more than three million downloads, TouchTunes Mobile is the No. 1 jukebox app. Patrons using AMI Entertainment's Bar Link are making three-quarters of a million transactions. And Incredible Technologies' ever-popular Golden Tee boasts GT Caddy. These are solid efforts, but there always will be a long way to go. The new normal, for better or worse, is to constantly upgrade to meet the rapidly increasing computing power consumers carry with them.

Coin-op, whose roots extend deep into technology, has yet to take advantage of the full power and relevance of these devices. Those with long memories will remember when the brand-new Personal Computer was touted as a way to organize recipes. That seems to be about where coin-op is when it comes to smartphones. As an industry, coin-op has barely scratched the surface of a potential that is robust now, and that will only continue to grow over the coming years as computing power and functionality expand.

The alternative to jumping on the bandwagon is simple. Coin-op could become a wholly marginalized entertainment medium with only the most tentative ties to consumers as an impulse play option. In truth, I do not know what this kind of disconnect will look like down the road. At present, we live in an age when even modest bars and art galleries have Twitter feeds, Instagram, and quick-fingered staff texting. I have become -- through virtually no effort of my own -- a "valued friend" of several establishments I've visited only once, and no doubt would have forgotten all about if not for their thoughtful cyber-missives.

The question, then, is this: Will coin-op be a valued friend to its consumers, or fade into occasional impulse play that is easily forgotten in an environment where there's increasingly fierce competition for the entertainment dollar?