Mobile Entertainment

The iPod Touch is used as much to access the web wirelessly while out and about as to listen to music. Smartphones are used to check email almost as frequently as they’re used to make calls.

The EeePC – a sub-notebook from Asus – has seen students sling a laptop into their bags as casually as a pad of paper. And naturally this increase in mobile computing has implications for mobile content, too.

It’s difficult to chart the path of such devices – internet-enabled handheld computers have been around for a while (I look back at the HP Jornada 720 I had in 2000 with fondness).

Nevertheless, what was once niche is becoming more widespread. Manufacturers such as Nokia and Intel are getting in on the act with their Internet Tablets and Mobile Internet Devices (MIDS), respectively. Other names for this type of product include the Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC) and the netbook.

These devices have become more popular in part because of the growing availability of wireless access globally. McDonalds, for example, has free wi-fi in 15,000 of its restaurants around the world, according to its website. Intel and other companies are backing WiMax, a 4G broadband wireless service for the US.
Price is also a factor – these new devices are often aimed squarely at consumers, with a lower price point than the slimline laptops intended for business professionals.

While technologies are converging, i.e. the computers we take out and about with us are becoming more and more powerful, in line with desktop computers – there will always be different demands on mobile devices as opposed to desktop hardware. For a start, they need smaller parts that use less power. Intel intends to push its Atom family of processors for Mobile Internet Devices, while Nvidia is aiming its recently announced Tegra chips at exectly the same market.

Content is a big part of this mobile future. This begins with the operating system – Windows and Linux are battling it out at the moment, with the latter possibly slightly ahead.

Users of these devices will be able to access most of the internet as they would do on a desktop computer, except perhaps for image or data-heavy pages. In those instances, mobile versions of those sites will still prove useful. And of course when it comes to software there will still be opportunities for content providers, whether through selling content direct to manufacturers, direct to consumers, or through portals such as Apple’s AppStore.

Netbook manufacturers may now seek to enter the mobile phone arena – many of them likely inspired by Apple's successful entry. Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini recently told the Financial Times: “If you accept that the value proposition of the high-end of the mobile phone market is full internet access that happens to have voice, my view is that it’s easier to add voice to a small computer than vice-versa.”

Perhaps all phones will become mobile internet devices. Most can connect to the internet already, even if it’s not necessarily through wi-fi. Perhaps all portable internet devices will become phones, too.

Mobile content providers now have to decide whether to get involved or simply watch from the sidelines to see how it all unfolds.