Mobile Video Has Real Potential, Now for BlackBerry

So much has been penned about the development of mobile communications technology and, quite frankly, most of it is rather remarkable. Who would have thought, even a few years ago, the kinds of mobile devices, access, and applications we have available today? Whether you’re looking for convenience or productivity enhancing applications or entertainment during a flight, or a seemingly endless selection between the two, you’ll have an easy time finding something. Certainly, if you are an iPhone user, the App Store offers a plethora of download options, and availability of like applications for the BlackBerry (News - Alert) Storm and G1 aren’t far behind.

 

The one service, however, that has for some time perplexed me is mobile video. Is there really a market for it? Will people be content to watch multimedia content on their handsets, even as big as the iPhone?

 

Well, I put my question to the test on my flight to Los Angeles last fall to ITEXPO West. I didn’t have an iPhone, or even an iPod Touch, but I did have my 160 GB iPod, which, while having a screen half the size of an iPhone, had no shortage of hard drive space. So, I loaded it up with several episodes of Grey’s Anatomy that I had missed before the summer, and headed to the airport. I figured, at worst, I would connect the iPod to my laptop and watch on that.

 

But, when I turned it on and started the first video, I was pleasantly surprised. The quality was, as I expected just fine, but the amazing part was that I could actually follow the program with ease – and without having to hold the iPod right up to my face. So, after catching up on Grey’s on that flight, I added a movie to the device for the flight home — though I was certain to fall asleep after a long, successful show. 

 

I thought there might be a difference between watching a weekly program I’m familiar with and know the characters, as opposed to a movie I hadn’t seen. Well, I watched about half of Iron Man, before falling asleep, but my viewing experience was the same. Sure, at home over the weekend, I watched on the big screen, but I was left with the realization that my assumptions about mobile video might have been misguided. 

 

Sure, it’s not the same as a laptop, and certainly it’s a far cry from a big screen TV at home, but the convenience factor — which is a key driver of the mobile revolution — can’t be ignored. In fact, I came to the conclusion that I, myself, might even be interested when such a service became available.

 

So, now that I’ve come to believe that there is a future for mobile video — and I imagine it can easily extend into the business world as well — it’s a question of the technology and handset compatibility.

 

Dilithium Networks, which develops technology to deliver multimedia content over mobile networks, is helping solve that problem, having announced live video and VoD streaming support for BlackBerry devices with its Dilithium Content Adapter (DCA). Already providing support for many other mobile devices, including those from Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, and Apple (News - Alert), the DCA now delivers live and recorded content to BlackBerry users through standard players and mobile browsers.

 

Naturally, it’s up to the network operators to provide the video services, but Dilithium provides an opportunity to offer such services to nearly an entire subscriber base, now that it has added BlackBerry support. The nice thing is that, with DCA, subscribers don’t need to download and install additional applications, but can access the videos using their existing browsers, over EDGE, WiFi (News - Alert), or 3G networks — whichever is available with their handsets.

 

In addition to supporting a wide range of video and audio codecs, for the operator, it also offers support for ad insertion, offering a revenue opportunity, with its built-in caching feature that reduces adaptation. It also has been developed for easy integration into operator frameworks.

 

Now that I’ve accepted that mobile video is a real opportunity, all I can do is wait for Verizon to make mobile video available for my Storm. But the key, on a larger scale, is that there is a real market for mobile video services, from live TV to VoD to high-quality video calling and conferencing. 

 

When I fly to Miami for ITEXPO (News - Alert) East in less than two weeks, I think I’ll make sure I’ve loaded a video or two onto my Storm. Even though I had no problem watching on the iPod, the larger screen on the Storm seems a logical choice.