BBC Sees Four Major Digital Media Major Trends in 2008
4 January 2008Four of the five technologies that the BBC lists as being on the rise in 2008 are connected with digital media:
1. The Web to go
2. Ultra-Mobile PCs
3. IPTV
4. WiMAX
And the case can be made that the fifth, Mobile VoIP, will play a significant part in growing the market for multimedia devices that come with built-in Wi-Fi, WiMAX or both. Any application such as VoIP on portable devices that increases the demand for WiMAX or for wide area Wi-Fi networks will expedite the advent of better, faster and wider wireless networks.
The Web to Go
What the BBC calls “the Web to go” is not the ideal world where Internet access is available everywhere. Instead, it refers to new software such as Google’s Gears, Adobe’s Air and Microsoft’s Silverlight, which automatically download Web content such as videos and make it available for viewing when the device is not connected to the Net.
As an example, the BBC cited an eBay menuing scheme that was built with Air. It allows the user to do everything needed to set up an auction except the actual posting on eBay’s servers. That is done the next time the device connects to the Net.
Ultra-Mobile PCs
Ultra-Mobile PCs are intended to fill a perceived gap between laptop PCs and smart phones. It is not a new product category, the first ones having been launched in 2006. So far no one, despite the efforts of Intel and Microsoft, has produced a winner. The failure has been blamed on high prices and poor battery life.
The BBC says, “2008 could be the year when Ultra-Mobile PCs have their day.” It points to the Linux-based Asus EEE, a sub-£200 ($400) laptop about the size of a hardback book. Its manufacturer predicted it would sell five million of the EEEs in 2008. The unit weighs less than one kilogram (2.2 pounds). Instead of having a hard drive, it has 4GB of flash memory.
As we have previously reported, the use of flash memory to replace or supplement hard disc drives is a trend that is already underway. Flash memory is non-volatile and can be erased and reprogrammed. It is faster and less subject to jolts than hard disks. Laptop manufacturers use flash memory to load the operating system and frequently used software more quickly while still putting in a hard disk for greater storage. Products such as some iPods and the iPhone use flash memory instead of hard drives.
Currently available are SD-style plug-in flash memory modules that store up to 16GB and are available for about $160. Samsung recently demonstrated 128GB memory chips, the largest so far, although not currently available commercially.
Sample Prices for SDHC Flash Memory Modules from www.flash-memory-store.com
16GB HD Qmemory SDHC Card $138.99
4GB 150x Qmemory SD Card $38.99
2GB SanDisk SD Card $19.95
2GB 150x Qmemory SD Card $22.95
2GB SanDisk Ultra II SD Card $33.95
2GB Lexar Platinum II 60x SD Card $42.95
8GB Qmemory SDHC Card $66.95
1GB SanDisk Ultra II SD Card $22.95
1GB 150x Qmemory SD Card $15.95
512MB SanDisk SD Card $12.95
256MB SanDisk SD Card $12.95
128MB OEM Secure Digital (SD) Cards $9.50
32MB OEM Secure Digital (SD) Cards $7.50
BBC: continued on page SIX
Apple rumors, ever abundant in the days leading up to MacWorld, have Apple launching an Ultra-Mobile PC and a slimmed down Mac laptop that use flash memory.
IPTV
There is still confusion about IPTV and Internet TV. Strictly speaking, IPTV is the use of Internet technology to deliver TV signals over a controlled network in the same way that the cable TV operators deliver TV signals. IPTV does give the pay-TV service greater functionality in terms of such things as interactivity and the ability to link a TV show to an Internet site – say a sporting broadcast to one of the players’ statistics. Examples of IPTV would include BT’s Vision and AT&T’s U-verse, but not Verizon’s FiOS, because it uses traditional broadcast technology to deliver traditional TV channels to the home.
Internet TV is generally defined as the ability to watch, legally or illegally, TV shows that are more or less permanently available on the Web. Examples of Internet TV would include Joost, NBCU-News Corp joint Hulu effort, the BBC’s iPlayer and ABC.com. In November, the BBC, ITC and Channel 4 said they’d jointly develop a Web site where viewers could access TV shows from all three.
What makes Internet video possible, the BBC says, is the increasing number of homes that have broadband. It quotes the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as reporting that half of all UK homes have a broadband connection with an average speed of 4 Mbps.
ADSL2+ technology, which the world’s telcos are beginning to deploy, offers speeds up to 24 Mbps.
WiMAX
WiMAX is the great hope of all Internet-dependent companies that do not have their own high-speed broadband service to the home. That includes everyone from Google to Apple, from Sprint to Vodafone, but, of course, excludes the phone and cable TV companies because they already have their broadband wires in the ground.
WiMAX, although not a descendent of Wi-Fi, promises to do on a wide scale what Wi-Fi has done in the home: give every device wireless access to the Net. There are differences with Wi-Fi such as a version called WiMAX mobile that lets devices connect and stay connected while they are on the move. Sprint, Samsung, Cisco, Intel and Motorola are among the major WiMAX backers but it is still an unproven technology. It was only several months ago that Sprint and Motorola first demonstrated WiMAX mobile. Clearwire is a WiMAX supporter and has been installing a pre-WiMAX version in a number of US cities, yet it has only recently started testing the final WiMAX version in one location.
Estimates are that there are several hundred WiMAX networks being deployed around the world, but they still have to be considered test installations.
Mike Roberts, an analyst at Informa Media and Telecoms, told the BBC, “Next year could be the first year that we see some of the major deployments of WiMAX in Europe.” A commercial WiMAX installation in Milton Keynes was pointed out as the UK’s first WiMAX venture.
Mobile VoIP
VoIP is the ability to use the Internet to make phone calls with PCs rather than paying the traditional phone companies. Skype is the most widely used VoIP service. Mobile VoIP means that people can use a mobile device – cell phone or otherwise – to make an Internet connection wirelessly and then use VoIP to make phone calls. That means the cell phone operator does not charge the user for the phone calls.
The BBC says that the mobile phone service 3 recently introduced a Skype phone that allows users to make VoIP calls. Nokia already has four phones that are capable of mobile VoIP and plans to make more.
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