Collaboration: Mobile Phone Entertainment

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By Ashley Kaye
18:28, 29 May 2006 (PDT)


Contents

Abstract

Along with advancing technology, mobile phone entertainment is one of the fastest growing interests in the U.S. among other countries. This report delves into the collaboration needed to create entertainment for a wireless phone and which companies work with each other to operate as smooth as possible. As time passes, the wireless phone is becoming more like a PC that consumers carry around in their pockets. " So many models boast MP3 players, games, cameras, and even video, some experts say we soon will spend as much as 80% of the time using our phones for entertainment."[1] Given this scenario, several companies, in the mobile phone business are collaborating to create new and exciting entertainment for mobile phones.

Description

A brief report on the different ways that companies work together to arrive at certain mobile phone applications.

Analysis and Evaluation

As the Internet becomes a more impressive tool so do consumer electronics. One particular electronic piece of hardware that has evolved into a remarkable device is the wireless or mobile phone. As defined by Wikipedia, a mobile phone is an electronic telecommunications device that connects to a cellular network of base sites. These base sites are then connected to the public switched telephone network. The first mobile phones existed without the technology of the cellular network in the mid-1940s. Because phones such as these operated by sending “two-way” radio waves the FCC regulated it and delayed expansion until the 1980s.[2] Bell Labs introduced the analog system for mobile phones, or AMPS, in the late 1970s and early 1980[3].

Analog cell phone
With the mobile phones of today it seems as though analog phones do not pique interest in any consumer. “[C]ellular companies must still provide analog service until March 1, 2008. After that point, however, most cellular companies will be eager to shut down AMPS [analog system] and use the remaining channels for digital services.” [4]


Cellular phones that serve a sole purpose are a commodity of the past while the wireless phones of today serve multiple purposes. Several different components become collaborations in order to arrive at the finished product. A product review report from Qualcomm states that “Over the last five years, enormous strides have been made in the delivery of data to mobile devices. In particular, cellular telephony networks have matured into robust delivery mechanisms for Internet data, and a rich variety of services are being offered around the world.”[5] As wireless phone hardware and software evolves so do many Internet capabilities as well as other graphic art media. This technological evolution means several different groups of businesses, engineers, artists and even the consumers collaborate with one another.

Example of Vcast
Example of Camera Phone


The collaboration that takes place behind the scenes of the finished product is where all things
IBM SmartPhone Simon
interesting happen. For example a Smartphone is an “electronic handheld device that integrates the functionality of a mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA) or other information appliance.”[6] The first Smartphone, “Simon” was created in 1992 by IBM and it contained features such as mobile phone use, a calendar, an address book, world clock, calculator, note-pad, e-mail, and games. Even over a decade ago the features for the high tech mobile phone were numerous. The basic Operating Systems used for these types of mobile phones are Symbian, Palm OS, Windows Mobile, BREW, and Linux.[7] With regular wireless phones today the features often mirror those of the Smartphone in that they have similar applications including text messaging, Internet access, calendar and note-pads, address book, a calculator and others such as a plethora of games. The booming business in mobile phone entertainment has actually allowed companies to places demos of games on mobile phones to entice users in purchasing the full software. It is applications like these games that generate more revenue as well as other entities such as ringtones and wallpapers. “In Europe and other regions, ringtones are a billion-dollar business, yet sales were only in the low millions in the United States during 2003.”[8]
The most recent developments are using mobile phones as cameras and MP3 players with companies Cingular Wireless and iTunes that have collaborated on the product.[9][10] The collaboration lies within a few companies to deliver a worthy product to consumers. In this case the Apple company (iTunes) worked with Motorola (phone hardware) as well as Cingular (large U.S. wireless phone carrier) to make sure each component flowed nicely into the next to create a smooth operating phone and music player. This particular collaboration aids in reducing clutter for the consumer. Two devices essentially become one as the former separate MP3 player and the mobile phone are merged together between separate companies. Other similar products have also emerged enabling users to put MP3 files on their mobile phones for their listening pleasure. Other merging trends have been occuring in the photographical realm. More often than not, in the present day, mobile phones are produced with cameras built in. Some have a basic photographic quality of 2 mega pixels per picture. While this type of quality is not the best for photographs, it does the job for the tiny screens that most mobile phones encompass. As technology becomes increasingly more intricate, companies are using more high-tech hardware and software for their mobile phones. Nokia recently released a phone that integrates camcorder capabilities with regular mobile phone use targeted towards the amateur film-maker (or anyone willing to purchase it).
Nokia N93
For the Nokia N series “Nokia is partnering with Yahoo! to offer users access to their Flickr accounts. They'll be able to upload and add comments to photos directly from their smartphones to the online photo sharing community.”[11] This in turn connects mobile phone users with Internet users that utilize photo uploading programs such as Yahoo!’s Flickr.

Collaboration that relates to Internet use also occurs with popular social networking websites like Facebook.com and MySpace.com. Networking websites like these that already represent forms of collaboration are now offering basic features on mobile phones that can access the Internet. While these websites do not charge money for the feature all wireless phone carriers do charge their own rates for text messaging and Internet access.

Corporations that are almost purely entertainment based have even jumped on the mobile phone bandwagon. For example, in July of 2005 it was announced that Disney would be partnering up with Sprint to produce a wireless phone service that boasted a family friendly platform. In 2004 Disney also announced plans for their ESPN unit to release a mobile phone geared toward their sports fans.[12] A collaboration such as the proposed Disney/Sprint concept is different than a corporation such as Disney collaborating with a wireless carrier to provide content for ringtones, wallpapers and other graphics and logos. This is because with the latter Disney only provides the content used to create these items and there are many of other companies or corporations working with mobile phone carriers to provide their content to create the same items. "The rush is on to deliver music and video to mobile phones, with wireless providers and device makers jockeying for position to grab their share of the payday, all parties mindful of the surprising billions being spent on musical ringtones."[13] The former allows the corporation to produce content and create different platforms of applications and other forms of entertainment that they can then market, such as Disney’s concept.

V Cast Music
V Cast Video
V Cast Games
One of the most popular forms of mobile phone entertainment today is Verizon’s V Cast. “V CAST uses the power of broadband. With average download speeds of 400-700 Kbps you can stream video clips (up to 5 minutes long) of the hottest entertainment, sports highlights, news and breaking weather to your Verizon Wireless V CAST phone.”[14] V Cast brings together several different entities of entertainment into one forum where it can be accessed from Verizon’s network service. On the V Cast home page it is stated that “at Verizon Wireless, we've committed significant resources to bring this amazing technology to you. We've spent billions to increase capacity and coverage in our core network, and are spending an additional billion dollars during 2005 to expand EV-DO technology in our network.”[15] The information on their home page also divulges the fact that their services reach over 148 million customers from coast to coast in the United States. With a service such as V Cast reaching so many consumers it is apparent that the appeal of obtaining immediate entertainment in several forms is escalating as technology evolves even more.


Similar to V Cast’s offering of services and actually using the same network (EvDO) Amp’d Mobile caters to the other millions of consumers that are mobile phone entertainment hungry. Amp’d services include “video on demand, music downloads, live event coverage and wireless 3D games - all at broadband speed.”[16] In an interview with Brian Mullen of Amp’d Mobile it was suggested that the newly launched company recognizes that “all the money being spent on ringtones, downloadable content, and entertainment [i]s a[n] opportunity, Amp'd is positioning themselves as the carrier capable of delivering an optimal mobile entertainment provider that just happens to have a solid voice network too.”[17] Amp’d is suggested to be the first integrated mobile entertainment company for the younger generations. They are the only 3G carrier in the United States today and use the EvDO network. Amp’d collaborates with high profile entertainment industry players like MTVN and Universal Music Group. Entertainment in the mobile industry has become an important part of daily life and is constantly watched in the news. When the collaboration of Amp’d and Square Enix, Inc. for a 3D mobile game it becomes hot topic news.[18] Square Enix, Inc., a Japan based company, “develops, publishes and distributes entertainment content including interactive entertainment software and publications in Japan, North America, Europe and Asia.”[19] Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest are two of their best-selling franchises.

The up and coming industry for mobile phone entertainment makes way for different types of companies to emerge. One of these companies is MobiTV. MobiTV prides itself on being the first mobile television and digital radio service provider for cellular, WiFi, and broadband enabled devices worldwide.[20] MobiTV has alliances with a handful of different wireless carriers that provide the service for its customers. The list of TV channels is extensive, which is why this company has won an Emmy Award along with bringing in more than one million paying subscribers. Similar company, Cinema Electric, which is based in Hollywood, offers like services with a twist. “We are helping to develop an entirely new mass medium, by creating mobile video, multimedia applications and services that are custom designed to fit a global audience infatuated with the ‘mobile lifestyle.’ We call this unique new medium: PocketCinema™.[21] Cinema Electric has created a suitable service that is perfect for their Hollywood environment. Portable Hollywood brings subscribers the latest about their favorite Hollywood players as well as other happenings in this busy scene.

The collaboration that exists in this area comes down to wireless phone carriers working with programming companies to use an operating system mentioned above. After this happens the wireless companies then decide what types of services they want theirs phones to offer and contact several different companies that provide mobile Internet, mobile games, as well as video entertainment. When the complete product comes together it is then the consumers’ time to collaborate and possibly create different networks with each other through the use of their mobile phones.

Works Cited

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