Global and Local Market Trends

When people talk about the latest market trends with regards to multimedia, they often speak in terms of global or macro usage.  One of the things that we have seen is that while there are broad changes and usage patterns for video services that are driven by devices, networks and applications, most of the real news comes from individual markets.

From a global perspective, we can look at the increasing number of 3G subscribers and especially relative to the total number of mobile customers.  The percentage of 3G subscribers is almost reaching 20% which is the point where people start to say there is a tipping point.  New smartphones from iPhone to G1 to RIM’s Blackberry are showing people how easy it is to access quality video on a daily basis.  Prices for these services are generally falling and all-you-can-eat pricing plans are making multimedia more accessible to the masses.  New codecs such as H.264 are providing a near-HD experience which helps to promote increased usage.

Then we have the local markets driving local services.  It’s easy to point to India and China where more than a billion people will eventually have access to next-generation mobile broadband, and their networks are being built out now – but these services are yet to be launched – though there are high hopes.  We see very specific applications tailored to a country in markets such as the Middle East and in South East Asia.  There are also cultural norms that have be followed – including the allowance of adult services in Western and Northern Europe (UK, Germany, Switzerland, Austria for example), which would obviously not be permissible in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or Bahrain.

What do you think and see?  Which markets are truly leading this revolution?  How much do global trends apply to local markets?

Key Technology Advances for Video Quality

The delivery of video services is far more complex than that of pure voice or data. Dilithium engineers and technical experts have been involved in broad range of standard and technology development in the audio/video compression and multimedia communication areas since the early 1990s. Today’s Dilithium products and solutions are underpinned by many of these technologies, either in a unique offering or as part of the standards.

Different telecommunication networks today utilize different audio/voice codecs. The variation is due to the different conditions (bit-rates, delays, error recovery/concealments, etc…) that govern a particular network. Within an industry (e.g. mobile/cellular) different codecs may also be dominant or mandated, as is the case in GSM/WCDMA and CDMA/CDMA-2000 networks. Another example of variation is between broadband VoIP codecs (e.g. the ITU-T G.72X series) and the mobile-oriented voice codecs.

The variations of audio/voice codecs used across networks necessitate transcoding because of bit-rates restrictions and the complexity involved in terminals supporting codecs of other networks. For example WCMDA handsets do not/cannot support G.72X series of codecs.

Hottest Video Applications

For several years now, we’ve been in discussions with service providers, value added resellers, partners and content owners on what multimedia applications customers want. We’ve further defined this into not only what customers want, but what they are willing to pay for, actually use, and the revenue potential to providers of these services.  What has become very clear is that the list of these services has continued to grow on a global, regional and local level, and the expertise in developing, marketing and pricing these services.

In the “early days” of 3G networks (think 2003-2005) there was a lot of talk around person-to-person and related services. These included video telephony, video mail and video conferencing. One of the issues that quickly emerged was the “fax machine” syndrome – one needed someone else to video call, and the amount of 3G subscribers compared to 2/2.5G was very limited.  Also, video quality given mobile phone codec capabilities was less than optimal, pricing and tariffs were too high, and there was no way to know who had video services or who was on-line. Since then, network capabilities including Video Call Completion to Voice (VCCV) and presence using IMS have greatly increased the potential usage – but we have also seen the extreme take-off of other machine-person services.

While video portal and video streaming were available also from the beginning of 3G networks on circuit and packet access, we have seen the massive take-off now of video blogging (uploads and download access), live TV streaming and video push of personalized video clips.  While we’ve seen some traction for video/multimedia ringback tones – especially in Asia – this is a market that is still emerging being as it is dependent on person-to-person video calling and cultural norms.

So … what do you see as the hottest and most used video applications?  How are they being used today and what do customers want most in the future?  In other posts you can find more information about multimedia applications and how they are being marketed and sold today.