Mobile Entertainment

Prospects for growth in the mobile video market are good. According to Juniper, the number of mobile broadcast TV subscribers in Western Europe is expected to exceed 20 million by 2011. Studies also show that the smartphone market, for which mobile video is a key driver, is keeping pace with this growth. ABI Research says it is set to increase from 218 million units in 2007 to 426 million units in 2012.  
 
However, the success of these markets depends on how effectively vendors deliver experiences their customers want. Despite some positive developments, there are still several factors limiting sector growth. First, the range of content available remains quite narrow – too often targeted at one specific typically young demographic group rather than the whole market.
 
But the main barrier is picture quality. Today’s consumers are used to satellite TV, DVDs and HDTV. In comparison, mobile video frame rates are often slow and image resolution poor. A further constraint is mobile bandwidth that cannot support rapid file transfer. For video codec developers like Actimagine the challenge is to develop solutions that overcome these constraints and deliver breadth of viewing in the expected high quality.
 
Today’s viewers want a broad array of different content types, from sports and entertainment shows to UGC and commercials – and they want flexibility in the way they watch it. They also want to be able to sideload it from PC to phone or vice versa. Actimagine demonstrated this capability during the recent Rugby World Cup, with a documentary about the New Zealand All Blacks, which could be stored on a PC and then sideloaded to a Nokia N95 with the help of Actimagine’s video codec, Mobiclip.
 
Viewers also want to be able to view material delivered live ‘over the air’, via 3G or EDGE. The key here once again is flexibility. The user should be able to access the required content instantaneously and then have the choice of whether to stream, download or sideload that content.
 
The approach chosen will largely depend on the network capability available to users. For example, if they have access to a high-speed WiFi network, they might decide to download. If not, they may choose to stream it instead. Finally, if they are using a PC, they can sideload and sync.
 
Actimagine is currently focusing on using Mobiclip to help users synchronise pre-selected web content with their mobile phone. This will even allow them to view their own webcam at home and view it from their mobile at any time. Ultimately, Actimagine expects its technology to support users create their own video spaces on the web in addition to exchanging and sharing content with other users.
 
Today, we are in the midst of a worldwide mobile video revolution, with phones already beginning to fulfil their potential as the third medium of entertainment after traditional TV and cinema.
 
But if the vast potential of the market is to be realised, technology providers and handset manufacturers must prioritise the user experience above everything else. At Actimagine, we are fully committed to pursuing this objective and helping to ensure that the most positive vision of the mobile video future soon becomes a reality.