Top 5 problems faced by mobile video startups

In my view, these are the top 5 problems faced by mobile video startups.

1) No ease of viewing video on small screens
2) The tech not worth enough to justify the data charges,subscriptions charges and premium content charges
3) Battery getting drained quickly by using mobile as entertainment device
4) Not enough bandwidth available on cellur networks for streaming and downloading video content
5) Mobile handsets supporting streaming video display are priced high.

And startups in this domain are positioned by what problem they are solving.

Advertising inside mobile content

Many Mobile Startups are geared towards the problem  "How to insert Advertisement inside mobile content"

Adinfuse Inserts ads dynamically when the content is actually delivered to the end user.
Interestingly, Ad Infuse has a podcast advertising product, Pod Infuse. There are early signs that Podcasting may be a big thing through mobile. Adinfuse is positioning itself as a early mover in this space.

Google recently they bought Adscape Media, a company located in San Francisco which has developed ways for advertisers to show fresh and changeable (dynamic) advertisements within video games which can be shown without interrupting gameplay.

The company holds number of patents in this area (pertaining) to gaming. But google with leverage these for video content on mobile platform..

One of particular interest to google would be,
Method and system for providing location specific advertising content within mobile platforms
 

Mobile Industry Statistics. ( Mind Blowing !!! )

Some stats from the  Tomi Ahonen's post putting 2.7 Billion in context ,

• Worldwide there are about 800 million registered automobiles
• Today there are 1.3 billion fixed landline phones in the world
• Today there are about 1.5 billion TV sets in use in the world . (TV is often shared, especially in Asia where families are also large. So you might easily have 6 or even 10 watching the same TV show. The reach of TV is much beyond the 1.5 billion sets in use.)
• Today 1.4 Billion people carry at least one credit card.
• In most countries it is illegal for under 18 year olds to have credit cards
• There are about 850 million PCs
• In total over 750 million people access internet content via a mobile phone today
• About the total PC population or about 850 million people, access the web via a computer.
• During 2007 the first cross-over from PC to Mobile phones will happen, with more users accessing via phone than PC.
• The total shipped PDA population is about 85 million, most which are replacements.
• Thre are 85 Million iPod in use
  
• DVD recorders/ PVR shipments are under 100 million.
• Camcorders, are under 100 million total shipped (many as replacements).
• Gaming consoles have shipped near 200 million units, out of which 150 million are second generation (PS2/Xbox) or newer.
• The (stand-alone) digital camera has achieved shipments of near 300 million.
• There are  2.7 billion Mobile phones shipped (technically 2.7 billion in January, not December). They sold 950 million phones last year and the total worldwide mobile subscriber base grew from 2.1 billion to 2.7 billion.
• Phones are replaced every 18 months (and this is still shrinking)
• USA has reached 75% penetration for mobile phones
  
• The Western European average per capita penetration for mobile phones is already 110%
• Italy, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Israel have penetration rates at about 140%
• China adds 6 million phones every month, India adds 7 million phones every month.
• Finland, Norway, Denmark and Portugal - each countries with 120% or more penetration rates - Mobilephones are less than 6 million units total.
• SMS Messaging Is Biggest Data App On Planet
• On the internet there are about 1.5 billion e-mail boxes, maintained by about 800 million people.
• 1.8 billion people are doing SMS texting.
• Last year over 42% of Americans were active in SMS already
• E-mail is opened in 24 hours and replied to in 48 hours.
• SMS is read within 15 minutes on average and responded within 60 minutes.
• 65% of e-mail is spam, less than 10% of SMS is spam.
• In South Korea five separate credit card services are available on the three mobile networks
• In South Korea almost 100% of credit card based point-of-purchase sites accept payment via mobile phone credit (and charge) cards
• Two years from launch almost 10% of South Korean phone users watch digital broadcast TV on their phones
• The Pop Idol formats have earned a windfall of over 700 million dollars out of text messaging votes
• In 2005 already half of all phones sold were cameraphones so cameraphones outsell digital cameras by more than 4 to 1 .
• There are 3.2 Billion to 3.8 Billion radio users.
• 73% of the population now uses the mobile phone as their portable clock. 
• 2.7 Billion phones in active use. There is a subscription for 40% of the planet's population.
• The mobile telecoms industry earned 725 Billion dollars last year.
• Global music industry earns 16% of its revenues from mobile phones (mostly ringing tones);
• Videogaming earns 14% of its global revenues from mobile.
• Mobile telecom  growth in dollar terms, from 2005 to 2006, was 105 billion dollars.

He adds,
Data Service Revenues in mobile =
 ( Total internet content industry + Internet Advertising revenues + Global videogaming revenues + plus hollywood box office revenues worldwide + the global music industry ( combined.)

Mind blowing !!!

Google Mobile Search Offerings

Things you can do using google search:

text GOOGL (46645) to get
including addresses and phone numbers, word definitions, numeric and other conversions, weather, and even sports scores.

1)Business Search:
Text-message the name of the business and its city and state to GOOGL,

2) Restaurant search:
 text something like pizza 94618 to receive the names, addresses, and phone numbers of all the pizzerias in that area.

3)Define a word:
To get a definition, text GOOGL with the command define: followed by the word (with no space between),

4) Conversions:
if you want to convert pounds to kilograms, or liters to quarts, or even find out the number of miles in a light-year, text GOOGL and enter 2 liters in quarts.
To convert foreign currency at the current exchange rate, text: $100 in euros

5) Weather Forecast
To find out the forecast for a region, text weather and the city name, such as weather Peoria, IL.

6) Sports search:
To find out how your team is doing, simply text its name.

Eric Schmidt - CEO says,

"It is clear that 2007 will be the year that mobile search query traffic grows substantially. Our current model is to use targeted text ads and we have evidence that the monetization of those ads is higher than in non-mobile uses. So it looks like the advertising revenue on a per-search query is likely to be significantly higher on mobile than on non-mobile.

As part of that, we are investing in new categories of using mobile devices. For example, YouTube content is being used and can be viewed on mobile devices in various partnerships that we're doing. Those are as much opportunistic for us, and they're not really driving revenue yet; although in theory, you could imagine a combination of video, video advertising on a mobile phone that would have the best entertainment value but also very, very high monetization rates. We're unlikely to split it out. It's not material today in a financial sense, and more importantly, it's still emerging.

We are making a significant investment in technology around mobile because of the growth rate of mobile and the ultimate scale of that business. You won't really see its financial impact until '08. "

Blogosphere buzzing on impending war. Google Vs Telecom Service Providers

Within hours of the Telegraph story, its all over internet.

" The talks, will detail how the networks can create a mobile phone search engine to rival Google and Yahoo! We understand that Vodafone, France Telecom, Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, Hutchison Whampoa, Telecom Italia and Cingular are all involved in the talks. Call revenues are declining and most networks are trying to find ways to make more money without having to increase prices in the long term. Most make significant income from data services but with Google announcing increased revenue from mobile advertising the networks understandably want a cut from the traffic they are driving."

Last time, ISP's lost the war with application service providers. This time Telecom Service providers are arming themself ,well in advance.
It was because Application providers won the last battle, that we have a truly free internet. Hope this time Google Prevails !!!

Mobile Advertisement: Evolving Strategies

The MEX blog post "Can mobile advertising evolve beyond the mission?" has raised some good points.
I am capturing the key points. ( Read the full article here )

1) Location, time available and mission are three key elements of mobile advertisement.

2) Knowing the context in which user has sent a query, is a must. For this, service providers have to datamine into users history.

3) The advertisement should by itself should be part of the solution user is searching for. Else it would be a distraction,

4) Entertainment service could be one such form of advertisement.

I do not agree much with the point that datamining into users history, is the only way. It seems too costly and un-optimised approach. But, there is little to suggest, how else this could be then done ;(

Popular mobile search keywords

The findings of mobilePeople's 'Mobile Search Trends 2006' study showed that

1)  6% of all mobile searches were for jobs and recruitment consultants just before Christmas 2006.

2)   The top mobile search categories before and during the festive perior, in order of popularity,

Taxis

Takeaways

Restaurants

Supermarkets

        Consumer electronics

Surprised Stocks/movies/buses-train time  are not there !

Cheap mobile phones are not the Future.

It easy to read the market and predict that, cheap mobile phones are the future.
"The demand for cell phones has never been higher, thanks to the demand for voice and text message services in emerging economies around the world. India, China, Brazil, and Africa – everywhere you look, citizens are clamoring to talk on their mobiles. They don't want expensive $500 iPhones – they want a handset that is good for SMS, voice, and maybe a few other basic features."
I beg to disagree.
The mobile phones are getting cheaper, because there are not much services available. In past 7-8 years, what innovative service have mobile phone vendors provided?
SMS/Alerts/ and of course talk. There is nothing else happening. And that's where the consumer says, "My $300 phone use is pretty much same as $100 phone. Then why don't buy the $100 phone "
That's the reason iPhone success is so important to this industry. In one stroke, they have given features, which will make consumers pay that extra. But in my view, its not the iPhone, but a open standard phone (allows third party applications), with features similiar to iphone, which will push the market. And ofcourse, how to fit the service providers into this is the OPEN PROBLEM.
Mark my words. This market, haven't started yet !