Chicago was great recently when I attended the 4G Wireless Conference. And while there were plenty of backhaul discussions, next-gen microwave technologies, and the odd apps vendor, the thrust of the conference could not be ignored - apps size and consumer usage has exceeded wireless network carriers' abilities to manage. Traffic offloading to WiFi, data price metering, measured response implementing were all discussed in the speeches, in the corridors, and even in the lunchroom. And the data type prevalent in the discussion was all about video uploads and downloads. Indeed, video is expected to quickly become the de facto language of wireless. Better get ready everyone.
One of the best conversations I had during the conference was with the OpenWave guys demonstrating their video compression technology. They demonstrated compression to optimize for several different device and network bandwidth constraints and I have to admit that the picture quality degredation could hardly be noticed across the different settings, which is excellent. Now, there is no upload capability yet with OpenWave, but I was assured they are working on it. Nor is theirs a device-detecting technology, which is unfortunate, for I think the winners in this category will come down to either their business model or technology. Business model will win out where they can enable partner companies to improve their revenue and/or cost-containment metrics (and they'll need to be able to detect what device and what plan for that to work), or by owning the technology sweet spot & in-code flexibillity. Lots of chatter about larger device and carrier companies taking a hard look at adding video optimization technology to their arsenal (spoke to ATT and Samsung). Video is already half of all data traffic on some networks (according to colloquium speakers) with 90% threshold expected to be hit within 2 years. This industry is popping right now!
I'm looking forward to attending the Mobile Marketing Association awards show in Los Angeles this coming month. I'm to be honored as one of the judges for the 2010 awards contest and it should be enlightening to rub elbows with West Coast thinkers in the mobile marketing industry. In attendance will be both brands and agencies, with the odd tech company or OEM providing their perspective. I'll report back on the workshops and awards so stay tuned.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment