Smartphones Driving Adoption of Mobile TV
Via Cellular News.
Consumer demand for mobile TV and VOD is being driven by the ability of smartphones to deliver personalised and targeted content that can be accessed immediately. The recent Olswang ‘Digital Convergence’ Survey of UK consumers revealed that ownership of an iPhone encouraged 37% of users to substitute their home TV viewing by watching VOD services on their device.
MobiTV, a provider of live streaming and VOD services, believes that devices like the iPhone have transformed the experience of watching TV on a mobile handset and support the view that smart phones will continue to drive consumer adoption of mobile TV services.
Jan Olin, European Managing Director for MobiTV, believes that the iPhone has changed the perception of watching live TV and VOD on a mobile device altogether, educating users to the possibilities that the mobile platform can offer. MobiTV itself has developed a range of live streaming and VOD applications that are compatible with all the major smartphone platforms including the iPhone, Android and Windows Mobile.
Read the full article at http://www.cellular-news.com
A Real Tsunami Warning
With ATT’s Ralph de la Vega making the stunning announcement last week that 3% of its smart phone users accounted for 40% of its network capacity while pointing a finger at video makes a very compelling story for video optimization. The iPhone has enabled and enamored so many users to access video that adoption will only grow and grow. His announcement is equivalent to a seismograph shaking its little needle off the paper.
The long awaited video tsunami is pulling the water away from the beach now. And it’s all going to come crashing back. De la Vega hinted of usage-based charging or ‘other’ incentives to motivate users to throttle back. There will be a backlash on ATT. Subscribers will get sensitive about dropped calls, QoS, and monitor their bills closely. This will lead to a rash of customer service calls for credits, justifications, explanations. Many will jump ship to Verizon. Handset makers and content providers are going to complain that uptake is slowed, etc. (That’s another story all together regarding ‘over-the-top’ plays).
But the savvy operator will take note and gird up for this onslaught before it reaches them. As iPhone and Android devices take off worldwide, the operators that remember their Boy Scout motto, ‘Be Prepared’, are going to protect themselves with bandwidth optimization facilities such as Dilithium’s DVO. DVO provides the operator the ability to control, throttle, and reduce the impact that video puts on the network. This is just the beginning.
Read More Here:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/12/09/technology/AP-US-TEC-ATT-Data-Usage.html?_r=1&hpw
Mobile Video Usage in Italy to Rise to 5.1M in 2015
By Ionut Arghire – Mobile Editor – Softpedia.
The number of mobile-phone users in Italy that access video content through their handsets is expected to rise up to 5.1 million by 2015, at least this is what a recently published report from technology and media specialist Coda Research Consultancy shows. Moreover, the firm also forecasts that the revenues in the segment are set for growth, reaching US$685 million by that time.
The report from Coda, focused on the Italian TV market, also unveils the fact that the number of mobile-phone users that will be accessing TV content from their devices is to double by 2015, when DVB-H alone is taken into consideration. Currently, there are around 1.2 million users in the country that enjoy this option, yet the number should reach 2.5 million in six years.
Read the full article at http://news.softpedia.com/news/Mobile-Video-Usage-in-Italy-to-Rise-to-5-1M-in-2015-128258.shtml
The Progress Project: Mobile Learning Institute
The Progress Project: Improving access to education Mobile Learning Institute (MLI), United States.
theprogressproject.com investigates an initiative that flies firmly in the face of traditional education. Mobile phones, banned in most schools, are here used as a key learning device in the classroom. At a summer camp kids learn to use mobile phones to make a film about the environment.