Streaming Media - October/November 2007 - (Page 22) t Video These five innovators are vying for attention in an increasingly crowded mobile video space. By Geoff Daily fter years of waiting for the technology and audience to develop, video to the desktop has finally arrived in a big, big way. Formats have been whittled down, delivery technologies have been improved, and broadband speeds have continued their steady march upwards. Finally, content owners are starting to realize viable business models for delivering video to the desktop. But the desktop was only the beginning. Now, eyes are rapidly turning to what might be the most numerous, and undoubtedly smallest, screens out there: the ones in consumers’ pockets. Mobile video is hot, and no one wants to be left behind as this space begins to mature; when audience interest starts reaching critical mass; and when the technologies that enable it are created, enhanced, and expanded. But like the early days of internet video to the desktop, the mobile space is rife with complexities and uncertainties for content owners looking to leverage these new platforms. If anything, the challenges are even worse and the future more unknown in the mobile world than they ever were for desktop video. Competing standards and delivery technologies each promise their own vision of a world where rich mobile media experiences thrive, but at this point it’s nigh impossible to postulate who will win out or even if any one will come to dominate at all. The market for mobile devices offers consumers boundless choice in features and functionality, but that also means content owners have to be prepared to deliver content across a broad spectrum of form factors and device capabilities in terms of storage and processing power. It’s an exciting, dynamic, potential-filled space fraught with uncertainty. So much so that anyone claiming to know where things are headed will likely not find history to be a kind mistress even six months down the road. But even in this uncertainty, content owners must do their best to keep up with the rapidly evolving marketplace, in particular as it relates to vendors offering new solutions for them to establish mobile identities. So instead of attempting to look inside a decidedly murky crystal ball to guess where everything’s headed, this article will take a step back and profile five companies trying to make names for themselves in the emerging mobile video marketplace, each one addressing a different part of the mobile video challenge. A 22 STREAMING MEDIA October/November 2007
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.