Mobile Video Demand Set To Take Off
Jason Harris of CMS Wire discusses the potential for mobile video in the US.
In a world where mobile phones are finding inroads into many different facets of our lives, a new study suggests a new usage pattern is about to emerge. According to Ovum, a telecom analyst firm, mobile video usage will soon gain traction. Two main factors for this include: advancing the prospect of widely-used video usage including rollout of next generation wireless networks and a new carrier attitude of openness with regards to which applications can appear on mobile handsets.
Wide Open Market
The United States has four major mobile network operators: T-Mobile USA, AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint/Nextel. Of these four carriers, AT&T Wireless is the only mobile network operator to launch a video conferencing service. However, the Video Share service features only one-way video, meaning your meeting attendees can see your face, but you can’t see their image.
According to the study (released in Feb), other mobile carriers have indicated that a mobile video offering is in the works and therein lies a vast opportunity for software vendors. A few software vendors have already begun rolling out video software including Qik, which allows a person to stream internet video live from their mobile handset. Similar applications include FlixWagon and kyte.tv.
Networks Coming of Age
With video usage comes the need to have a robust data network in place. AT&T’s Video Share service, for example, is only available where a 3G signal is available. To respond to the need for increased data throughput, mobile network operators have been increasing capacity in their networks.
Specifically, AT&T and T-Mobile have expanded their 3G network footprint nationwide. In addition, Sprint/Nextel has rolled out their 4G network under the Clear brand name. The Clear service resulted from Sprint’s acquisition of Clearwire and increased investments from Comcast, Google, Intel and other interested parties. Internet service from Clear provides very fast and robust Internet speeds thanks to the network’s underlying technology: WiMax.
Read the complete article at http://www.cmswire.com/cms/mobile/mobile-video-demand-set-to-take-off-003922.php
MYTV: Youth Marketing China
Graham Brown of http://www.mobileYouth.org looks at Youth Marketing in China with the help of John Solmon from http://www.enovatechina.com Lisa Yi of http://www.chinayouthology.com and Kevin Lee of http://www.genychina.com
To download the accompanying Ebook head to http://www.mobileYouthnet.com
Turkish 3G Mobile Operators Move Quickly to Restore Service After Floods
I landed in Istanbul the night the rain began to fall. By the next morning, Istanbul had experienced its worst flooding in 80 years. Many parts of Istanbul were underwater, more than 20 people were dead, and several of the leading telecommunications providers had service interruptions, as floods destroyed equipment rooms. Dilithium was asked to quickly re-supply equipment as service providers are in the midst of 3G launches with attendant multimedia services.
Istanbul is steeped in history with the first settlements dating back to 6500 BC. However, today it is a modern city with a very well developed telecommunications infrastructure. Turkey is the 5th largest telecom market in Europe and one of the 15th largest markets in the world, with nearly 100% mobile penetration rate. It is a very competitive market and due to this fact and mobile saturation, service providers are racing to offer multimedia value added services as a way to differentiate their offerings and attract new customers and new revenue sources.
The major service providers are aggressively pricing multimedia services equivalent to voice pricing, as well as offering bundled voice, data, and video plans, with some premium options. The lead applications include Facebook mobile apps, portal access, mobile tv, video mail, and video conferencing. With relatively low internet and broadband penetration in Turkey, mobile phones will be the key to accessing content from the web.
eMarketer Reports on Mobile TV Challenges
According to data from Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI), more than one-fifth of US mobile phone or PDA users are interested in watching live TV on their mobile device.
Respondents to the research firm’s “Survey of the American Consumer” were even more likely to be interested in watching mobile TV if they indicated that they viewed their mobile device as a source of entertainment—46.9% of such consumers said so.
Read the full article at http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007273
Market Report – iPhone Coming to China
Market Report – iPhone Coming to China
In todays market report China Unicom, the country’s second-biggest wireless carrier, will reportedly announce a deal to sell Apple’s iPhone in China. That will give Apple access to the world’s largest mobile market with nearly 700 million subscribers.
China may well define new trends in 3G Video Services
China Telecom has launched 3G CDMA-2000 services in most cities, and China Unicom is soft-launching 3G WCDMA with multiple video oriented services. China Mobile is ramping up the launch of 3G TD-SCDMA, which is largely based on locally developed technologies.
One aspect that one could not ignore is the sheer scale of 3G activities, and what its global impact. The very large subscriber bases makes it difficult to extrapolate subscriber behavior in other countries to China. The recent experience of applications and services such as peer-to-peer streaming by Tencent, is I believe a convincing evidence that Chinese subscribers are far more video-aware than subscribers in other geographies.
It may well be that everybody will be surprised by the response of subscribers to various video applications, including video-calling, mobile video on demand, video ring back tones, and many new services that the highly creative Chinese software developers are likely to create, within the highly dynamic Chinese society. China may well define new trends in 3G video that other smaller countries did not dare to explore.
3G.co.uk reports on 3G Mobile Broadband
Europe : Newly released 3G+ and Long Term Evolution (LTE) forecasts by technology and media specialist Coda Research Consultancy show that portable laptop and netbook users accessing the internet via mobile broadband will number 418m worldwide by 2017, will produce US$48bn in revenues, and will generate and consume an immense 1.8 exabytes of traffic per monh – a forty fold increase over 2009.
Coda Research’s report into mobile broadband via netbooks and laptops shows that the most significant growth will occur in the Asia-Pacific region, where users will amount to 162m by 2017. Europe will account for 94m users, and together, Asia Pacific and Europe will account for 61% of all users. The picture for LTE is even more dramatic, with nearly three quarters of worldwide LTE users coming from these two regions by 2017.
For the full story got to http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/July2009/3G-Mobile-Broadband-Via-Laptop-Users-to-Reach-418m-Worldwide-3G.html
Vietnam ramps up to 3G launch
I was in Vietnam in the middle of May, and it was my first visit. I was really overwhelmed by the extent of modernization that is taking place there. Several mobile operators are preparing to launch 3G in late 2009 (desirably before the Tết festivities). 3G Video value added services are attracting strong interest, whether live TV, Video on Demand, Video-calling based services such as video surveillance and video portals. 3G may be an additional strong motor for local communication industry development and growth, in particular for the local system integrators and Application Service Providers.
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?
Growth of Mobile Services in India
Since I joined Dilithium Networks in June, in the exciting field of mobile video, I have had a chance to reminisce about my 15 year on and off association with the telecommunication industry in India from a vendor perspective.
Going by the saying “numbers never lie”, the growth in the mobile space has been mind-boggling. By 2010, India is expected to have 500 million mobile subscribers, growing at the rate of 10 million new subscribers a month. 40% of these subscribers are expected to use their mobile phone for something more than just making a basic call. The cost of making a mobile call is the lowest in the world and mobile devices are expected to be the primary device for internet access for a big section of the population.
The auction of 3G licenses in the 2H,09 is expected to provide a major boost to mobile video and related value added services (VAS) that are unique to the socio-economic set-up for the cost conscious Indian consumer.
One of the big challenges facing India is the inadequate power/electricity production, where rural areas receive less than 8 hours of powers a day on average. Since television cannot be turned on for most of the day, mobile devices are expected to provide back-up entertainment as well – from watching cricket snippets and getting the latest scores in a cricket crazed nation, to watching news or getting the latest on the ongoing soap operas.
Mobile video and VAS are also expected to play a major role in the small business and services sectors. Some possibilities include: construction contractors making a video call to their sub-contractors and monitoring progress from their phones rather than visiting each of their sites everyday; plumbers rather than visiting multiple shops for parts can make video call to check out the available choices; farmers can call experts and show them field conditions and get advice without traveling; explaining medical conditions to experts in the cities… the possibilities are endless.
The way to I think about it is that the pipes for mobile infrastructure are ready. The next step for the service providers is to enable video and VAS that are relevant in the context of India’s socio-economic set up. The mobile revolution is just beginning in India……..tighten your seat belts and get ready for the ride.