Week of June 11, 2007

An Early View of Mobile Video Usage

Friday, June 15, 2007

TDC Mobile in Denmark has had a robust mobile television service for over six months now, and it has just released data on the behavior of mobile video usage. The results aren't surprising: People tend to consumer a small amount of video via cell phones, and they do it in shorter segments.

Some of the details: Users access mobile TV 2.7 times a day. They watch mobilt TV for roughly 9-10 minutes per day, which breaks out to about 3 and a half minutes per session.

Mobile Video Download Forecast Is Huge

Thursday, June 14, 2007

While mobile video has consistently disappointed quarter after quarter, we are once again seeing a research company predict that the future is bright. Research & Markets predicts that mobile users purchasing video will increase from 5 million last year to almost 80 million in 2012. Mobile video sales revenue could reach $10.2 billion in 20212. Even with the bright forecasts, the company did outline some major issues remaining to broad adoption, including the limitations of closed carrier systems and a confusion about standards.

Apple iPhone Questions

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Paid Content reports that the Apple iPhone will require an iTunes account, complete with a credit card on file, for the multimedia functions to work. Without an iTunes account, the iPhone won't be able to synch audio or video, even non-DRM audio ripped from a user's CDs.

With limited functionality without an external merchant account, Paid Content contends that the Apple iPhone is beginning to look like an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator), like ESPN Mobile and Helio. This is an interesting point-of-view and puts Apple cellular partner AT&T in a new light: Not as a "partner" but more as a service provider leasing bandwidth to Apple.

53% of US Homes Have Broadband

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Leichtman Research Group has announced that their recent research of 1,600 randomly selected households has shown that 53% of US households have broadband. Broadband is still concentrated in the upper income levels, with only 39% of households with an income below $50,000 having broadband.

Copyright Filters: Useless?

Monday, June 11, 2007

The Newteevee blog tested digital fingerprinting and the filtering of copyrighted video on Microsoft's new video sharing site, Soapbox. Microsoft uses Audible Magic, the same filtering system that other sites (like MySpace and DailyMotion) are or will be using. The result was interesting, as the uploaded video didn't get flagged. When Newteevee notified Audible Magic and Microsoft, the two traded blame, but nothing got done: The video wasn't pulled until a week later.

Newteevee, figuring that the digital fingerprint was no updated, uploaded the same exact video, expecting the copyright filter to now catch it. Wrong. The video was uploaded and added to the site. Clearly, digital fingerprinting has a long way to go.