Thursday, February 03, 2005

A Big Opportunity for the Smallest Screen

Multicasting has started to feature large on my radar screen at the moment. For the last few years it has been called tomorrow's internet. Now we have Nokia & Crown Castle in one corner and Qualcomm in the other developing technology that allows broadcast quality messages to be sent to a select group similar to videoconferencing and teleconferencing.

Now the delivery of mobile video is something that I am not that impressed with at present, a two minute highlight video is not broadcasting but with the development of multimedia services based around the same technology used for Freeview makes for a very different case. To start off with we have mobile networks looking at quality networks built with little/no latenacy, then we have the coverage limited to specific areas. What we could see is an opportunity for venues such as golf courses capable of showing replays without the benefit of big on site screens.

Is the development of such a service the content golden egg, or is it just another pipe dream? I for one will not be a fan, the though of listening to breakfast TV when stuck at the points on the tube is just the thing that would send me into a rage rather than sedate me!

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

The curse of the Blackberry

Infoconomy has a great feature on how the must have pocket accessory for senior executives has a dark side - and those in IT know all about it.

The bottom line is that this little box in your pocket has far more status than value. Those that push it say the device is important in that it allows constant communication. The issue is that the mobile networks don't have the coverage necessary to make it the device as sold.

RIM feels that it has come up with the iPod for the executive class, I think that they have come up with email plague. The problem is that the messaging market is developing and presence is more important, I communicate more with IM and voice than I do with email because when I want to communicate I prefer a two way process and with email its not aways on. The thing that convinced me that Blackberry was not for me was the fact that not all those at the top of the mobile operators were carrying one, despite the fact they had two or more handsets!

On top of that we have RSI reports that too much usage was a bad thing!