[opendtv] The wilderness is becoming plain

For years, on this list and elsewhere, I have ranted about the "non-starter" 
nature of mobile video (as opposed to mobile data and mobile audio) for many, 
many reasons.  People have argued -- fecklessly, mostly -- and they have ranted 
back.

The most recent "bump" seen for mobile video was the World Cup.  Simply, that 
was borne or ignorance or mere pure hype. I'm not the world's biggest metric 
football fan, but here's what I do understand about it vis a vis mobile video:  
Mobile video is the field of xcu's (extreme closeups) and short segments.  
Metric football is about full or half-field long shots, with the ball a mere 
pip on the screen.  The action goes on for 45 minutes with no real break.

To expect to see a soccer ball on a 2 inch screen is to not know anything about 
soccer, soccer field productions or the realities of mobile video.  If you zoom 
in on the ball, you'll miss the action and physical context that soccer fans - 
like my neighbors in Mexico -- have come to expect.  This is a driver for 
larger fixed screens, not smaller mobile ones.

To even think that the killer app for mobile video would be the FIFA Cupo de 
Mundial is to think that the killer app for pigs is as air-carriers.  Me, I 
vote for the bacon component in bacon and eggs.

While I'm at it, Dermot, I note that your other parochial favorite -- Airbus -- 
is now pimping for ANOTHER state bailout because of their disastrous foray into 
a continually-delayed mega jet liner.  ISTR that you were sure that that other 
bad European idea was going to kill Boeing.

Come to think of it, I think I need to post my review of a visit to Qualcomm's 
MediaFLO headquarters here.  Members of my PSIP list saw it about a month ago.  
It was the post headlined "The Boldest Dumb Idea I've Ever Seen."

Here's a Reuters digest of a Wall Street Journal report (I assess that Reuters 
has about zero IP interest in it) that touches on the realities of mobile 
video.  Note that "less than 1% figure."  I've never even gone that low ...

John Willkie

P.S. As a caveat, I have been disdainful of two previous "killer apps" in my 
life: Instant Polaroid movies, and (ulimately) the CBS EVR thing from the 
1960's.  I've been a first adopter of others, including windows/pc video/audio, 
VCRs, etc.
-----------------
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A wave of cellphone start-ups, hoping to attract users to 
television, music and other premium services, are floundering as they fight 
over a thin slice of the U.S. market, a report said on Tuesday.

About 30 wireless operators and hundreds of related wireless technology firms 
have been launched in the past four years, but many are struggling and face 
losses, The Wall Street Journal said.

In the past 16 months, start-up cellular carriers raised at least $1 billion, 
according to Rutberg & Co., a San Francisco investment bank, the newspaper said.

But only 1 percent of cellphone users regularly use their phones to watch 
videos, even as the number of U.S. cellphone users has doubled over the past 
six years to 215 million, it said.



Venture capitalists and others remain hopeful that the new-media offerings, 
which have proved popular in Asia, will prove the same in the United States, 
the Journal said.

 
 
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