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A Bad Case of Mobile Video Fever
By Mark Evans | August 17, 2006
Granted, it's the year of video (YOV) given all the excitement about YouTube, etc. but you have to wonder whether some people are getting carried away. For example, Infonetics Research recently issued a report that suggests mobile video service revenue could soar to $5.6-billion by 2009 from a piddling $46.2-million in 2005 - a “staggering 11,997% jump”. This is the kind of rah-rah enthusiasm that was alive and well during the dot-com boom when research firms fell over themselves forecasting how big the e-commerce market would become. Now, Infonetics does give themselves an out when it comes to the market's growth - it will explode “if mobile video providers are able to resolve a number of quality and content-related issues”. This offers a lot of wiggle room if the $5.6-billion fails to materialize or show signs of reaching those heights. “The success of mobile video hinges on a number of factors, including the availability of handsets with reduced power consumption, value for the subscriber's money, ease of use, acceptable price points for multimedia handsets, and most importantly, the right selection of standard and unique channels, content, and services,” said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband and IPTV with Infonetics. That's an awful long list, which makes you wonder why Infonetics is so optimistic about the market's potential. Call me a skeptic or pragmatic but I'm not convinced mobile video will be as huge as some people anticipate. There will definitely be a sweet spot for short clips such as sports highlights, breaking news and entertainment (music video, interviews, etc.) but it's unclear how much demand there will be and how much people are willing to pay for the convenience of mobile video.
For more views, check out Reiter's Mobile TV Report.
Addendum: Light Reading has a top-10 list of the video-sharing services. The highest-ranked is blip.tv, while YouTube ranks fourth.
Topics: Main Page, Video, Wireless |