In May, Motorola released a new wireless phone that’s more about media than calling.
The phone comes loaded with The Bourne Identity and is designed to play Hollywood blockbusters and video games. It has a quality camera built in and has as much memory as some desktop PCs.
The phone is available only in Europe and Asia at present, though economics suggest we’ll see a U.S. version soon. The research firm Gartner predicts “mobile TV” will be a mainstream wireless service by 2010, at which point it will have about 500 million subscribers worldwide. In addition, Gartner forecasts global mobile TV revenues will grow from the current $100 million a year to $15 billion.
Every company delivering any kind of content is likely to fight over that pie–programmers and film-makers already are working on how to design films for the tiny screens.
For more information …
“Motorola Presents Its ‘Media Monster’–The Ultimate Mobile Entertainment Experience,” Motorola Inc. news release, May 15, 2007, http://www.motorola.com/mediacenter/news/detail.jsp?globalObjectId=8149_8078_23
Eric Auchard, “Motorola Plans Movie-Playing Mobile Phone,” Boston Globe, May 9, 2007, http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/05/09/motorola_plans_movie_playing_mobile_phone/