Live Streaming On-the-Go
Video Share streaming doesn’t go through the web, and users can’t store video online for later retrieval. The service enables one-way live streaming video calls that can be seen by both parties while they are participating in a two-way voice conversation. Once they have initiated a Video Share voice call, either party can generate a video stream for the other to see. AT&T says it plans to offer two-way calling in the future. Video Share launched in July 2007, and it is now available in 320 markets nationwide. Either because of interoperability limits or the high price, usage has been underwhelming. If AT&T’s goal is to limit the impact on its network by keeping prices high and adoption low, it has succeeded.
Upward Mobility?
Even though the current leaders in the mobile streaming space have yet to prove the viability of their business models, new entrants continue to proliferate around the world. The U.K.’s Next2Friends, Sweden’s Bambuser, and Ohio-based Comet Technologies entered the space in the last year. Stickam, the popular live streaming social network, released a dedicated mobile streaming client in 4Q 2008. Startups such as Floobs of Finland and molv.com from the Maldives are moving through beta trials. While these new hopefuls race to deliver new features and support new devices, most phone manufacturers (Nokia excepted) don’t seem to be in any hurry to facilitate mobile streaming.
Apple has yet to approve a streaming application for the iPhone, forcing users who want to stream to jailbreak and void the warranty of their iPhones. T-Mobile’s recently released G1 phone runs Google’s new Android OS and doesn’t support streaming from the phone at all. Providers only began offering streaming from BlackBerries in 4Q 2008. Nokia’s Symbian is still the only OS that is compatible with all mobile streaming providers. The leader in mobile streaming hardware is still the 2006-vintage Nokia N95, with its built-in GPS, impressive 5-megapixel camera, and Carl Zeiss optics.
Figure 1. Nokia’s Symbian OS is still the only OS compatible with all mobile streaming providers, and many of thecompany’s devices, such as the N79 shown here, feature a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics.
Live mobile streaming has just begun to enter the zeitgeist, and new smartphones and other mobile devices, including new ultra-mobile personal computers (UMPCs) and mobile internet devices (MIDs), will no doubt start to incorporate higher-quality cameras and streaming applications. Bandwidth and application challenges are well on their way to being solved. The questions that remain have more to do with the inherent value to the public of live mobile streaming.
When is streaming from a mobile device preferable to streaming from a laptop? At this point, for every VBCJ using a mobile phone to stream valued content, there are dozens of users streaming unwatchable videos of their pets. Does anyone really want to watch live streaming from a car stuck in rush-hour traffic? How much of a premium would people be willing to pay their mobile carriers for the privilege?
While the budding service providers evangelize about the benefits of live mobile streaming, skeptics caution that just because technology enables a new behavior doesn’t mean that people will incorporate that new behavior into their daily lives. Then again, when Alexander Graham Bell offered to sell the patent for the telephone in 1876, the president of Western Union declined, saying that the telephone was "nothing but a toy."
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