Wireless streaming video over mobile phones is now available at a store near you.
Internet video company RealNetworks Inc. today planned to launch a wireless Web site featuring streaming content from several media companies, as well as a promotional program for content providers and carriers. The service is available for users of Nokia Corp.’s 3650 mobile phone, as well as some Palm Inc. and Pocket PC-based devices.
“RealNetworks is blazing a trail much as we did with the early days of Internet audio and video,” said Dan Sheeran, the company’s vice president. “With enabled phones and devices shipping today, consumers can start really appreciating the world of audio and video content from wherever they are, and content providers have the chance to establish their mobile brands now with consumers.”
Although streaming video has long been discussed in the wireless industry, virtually all the demonstrations of such technology have relied on desktop simulations or high-powered PDAs running the video content from memory. RealNetworks, along with PacketVideo Corp., Emblaze Systems Inc. and others, have been working to break open the market, with most announcing some carrier trials and manufacturer deals. However, few trials have turned into real deployments, and only a handful of Asian and European carriers have begun offering such services. The RealNetworks service is one of the first commercially available wireless streaming video services in the United States.
In conjunction with their announcement, RealNetworks offered a demonstration of its service running over Nokia’s 3650 phone on AT&T Wireless Services Inc.’s GPRS network. The phone includes an integrated RealOne Mobile Player. Although somewhat choppy, the service worked surprisingly well, displaying animated short films with full sound and relatively clear video. Fast-paced movie trailers proved too much for the service, producing only a few clear moving images; but slower, steadier videos such as news broadcasts or animations were easily visible. Loading times were negligible and the service supported videos up to four minutes and longer. Streaming audio, including tracks from newly released music albums, played mostly without pause.
The service falls under RealNetworks’ new RealOne Mobile Guide, which is a part of the company’s subscription-based RealOne Internet streaming service. The mobile version works over a WAP site, and features content from Capitol Records, FoxSports.com, iFilm, National Public Radio, Virgin Records and others. Along with select movie trailers, the service also features short films, animations and streaming music.
As part of its effort to promote the new streaming video service, RealNetworks also announced its Mobile On-ramp program for content providers. RealNetworks said video content companies can use the program to distribute their videos over mobile phones running the RealNetworks Mobile Player. When encoding their video for playback over RealNetworks’ Internet service, content providers only need to make minor changes in order to offer their video over RealNetworks’ Mobile Guide.
“We have a pretty substantial marketing campaign,” said Ian Freed, vice president of RealNetworks’ mobile products and services. “We’re just getting there.”
RealNetworks’ RealOne Mobile Player is part of Nokia’s Series 60 platform, which is based on the Symbian OS. Siemens and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. have announced plans to ship devices using the platform. For its part, Nokia said it will ship 10 million phones using the Series 60 platform, devices that will include RealNetworks’ player. PacketVideo offers its own player, available on Sony Ericsson’s P800, as does Microsoft Corp. through its Smartphone and Pocket PC operating systems.
RealNetworks’ Freed said the company’s wireless streaming video service will be free for now (although data transmission charges will apply, which could quickly run up the bill). However, Freed said at some point down the road, the company expects to charge a subscription fee for its wireless content, as it now does on the Internet. Indeed, the company counts more than 900,000 subscribers to its Internet streaming video service, a number that dispels some criticism about the potential for Internet subscription services.
