Technology - Mobile Devices & Multimedia - Summary
By Ninad Dalal
Multimedia services available on mobile devices include audio/video playback and recording. Two types of multimedia capabilities are prominent—playback of locally stored media, and playback of streaming media. Streaming multimedia is an emerging technology with a great potential. Factors that must be considered: physical handset capabilities; compression and streaming technology; and communication between different entities involved like carriers, service providers, and manufacturers.
Opportunities
The key to successfully deploying multimedia services is the relevance of the streams to the users and the amount of control users can have over them. Streams like news broadcasts, weather and traffic updates would be more valuable to mobile users than entertainment broadcasts. Also, the more users control what they can play, the more attractive is the service, and the more money they will be willing to pay for it.
Challenges
- There are no set of standards that entities in the industry (carriers, manufacturers, service providers) agree upon.
- Multimedia broadcast to mobile devices requires a large bandwidth, and thus, several different network types can be used—this makes switching between different network types and services (that will depend on bandwidth available) tough for devices and carriers in terms of infrastructure.
- Multimedia services can also be limited by handset-specific problems like screen size, battery-life, operating systems, and processing capabilities.
- The type of service offered will also be a factor because people may not necessarily be keen on watching movies or sitcoms on their cell phones. Advertising on cell phones can prove to be a nuisance and waste of battery life.
Future Research Areas
Can the industry come to a common (or at least inter-compatible) solution for multimedia services? What kind of infrastructure would be required for successful deployment of these services? What kind of services could be possible?