The New York Times’ Laura Holson has this piece today about how Hollywood is shifting its perception of mobile video on the eve of Apple’s iPhone debut. Because the iPhone allows users to access the Internet via Wi-Fi, the possiblities of increased viewership for web-based TV shows and movies on mobile handsets are tantalizingly close.
But, one barrier to increased mobile video consumption is the gatekeeper role that mobile carriers play in deciding what kinds of video get consumed via their networks.
For years, mobile phone carriers like AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint have closely controlled what cellphone users watch, when they watch it, and on what kind of screen they watch it — much the way the networks did with television before new technologies loosened their grip. Many in Hollywood and Silicon Valley hope the iPhone’s multimedia features will make it easier for any mobile-crazed consumer to do the same things they do on the Web: watch their favorite television shows, download maps, send e-mail messages to friends and swap videos.
But, and we won’t really know this until Friday, will the iPhone’s Wi-Fi capabilities allow viewers to watch video from any source of content, not just YouTube (Apple has developed a special application so that iPhone owners can watch YouTube via Wi-Fi and AT&T’s Edge network). Will AT&T allow all kinds of video, not just YouTube, to work over its Edge network on the iPhone?
Nobody has the answers to these questions, which I find kind of weird at this late stage of the game and given all the excitement surrounding the iPhone. No matter how cool the iPhone is, AT&T has the ability to block content on the device.
“The iPhone is a fantastic device, but they don’t control the network,” said Craig Shapiro, head of content strategy and acquisition for Helio, the mobile phone maker and service company. “For these things to work, though, everyone has to get with the program.”
And AT&T isn’t exactly going out of its way to discuss this issue either. Neither is Apple. This is, to quote Tony Soprano, the 500-pound elephant in the mobile video room.
Cynthia Brumfield at 8:36 AM|Comments(1)
I think the great unknown is whether iPhone's implementation of Safari supports plugins. Right now, Flash doesn't appear to be supported but we don't know whether the hold-up is Adobe or Apple / AT&T.
We also don't know whether web pages containing Quicktime movie files will work. If so, I'd definitely be interested in seeing whether the Perian team can get their components installed on the iPhone.
Posted by: Mike at June 25, 2007 10:06 AM
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