Our
View: Cell phone videos headed for
digital doom
The media world is changing at an exponential rate. The power of yesterday to
frantically “stop the presses” now cannot stop the technology wave
that both enhances and threatens journalism.
The world of print media is declining in readership and profitability, but its
technological broadcast counterpart is not. Broadcasters regularly thrive through
innovative use of the Web, television and radio to inform and entertain the public.
These efforts have predominately been successful — just ask Rupert Murdoch.
With the advent of cell phones wirelessly enabled for Internet access, media
companies think they have found a new way to enhance their product, such as Verizon
Wireless introducing V Cast.
The idea for V Cast is simple and, on a surface level, flawless: give the customers
what they already get from the TV and Internet onto to their phone. Download
CNN, weather forecasts, slam-dunk basketball videos or Nicole Richie onto your
flip phone to watch at a convenient time.
There is no extra effort for companies to make Internet media like video clips
reachable for phones. They can nail two mediums on the same swing.
There is little
effort required for customers to obtain the media.
But beneath all of this, there is one painfully apparent problem.
Who the heck wants to watch the nightly news on a cell phone?
Has Verizon or any other company realized watching video on cell phones is cumbersome?
Cell phone screens are tiny. One Verizon model flip phone’s screen measures
approximately 1.5 by 1.5 inches. That’s a little bigger than a Cheez-It
but smaller than a saltine cracker, matchbox or condom wrapper.
Imagine, people all over country will be saying the following:
“
Excuse me honey, I need to hear Bill O’Reilly tonight curled up on the
couch staring at my cute cracker screen.”
“
Hey guys, let’s save money renting the big TV and watch the Super Bowl
this year from my new phone!”
What kind of world are Verizon and other companies living in? Americans love
big-screen TVs. Watching video from tiny cell phones is a gigantic step backward
to an archaic age before remotes and TV dinners. People just won’t stand
for it, much less pay good money.
The only real appeal to downloading video to watch on a cell phone is convenience.
You can check out your stuff nearly anywhere with reception.
But with convenience comes the price of digitally compressed, poor-quality media.
The ads showing otherwise are misleading. Even if companies can eventually produce
high-quality streaming video to cell phones, there is still the problem of watching
the action from a tiny screen.
No one is going to buy a bigger, bulkier cell phone to do that. It will not happen
in a society where the only thing men brag about being small is their phone.
Having easy access to video, whether it be news, sports or entertainment on cell
phones is just a marketing gimmick destined for failure. It’s comparable
to the personal digital assistant (PDA), somewhat popularized by the Palm company
and their Palm Pilot.
PDAs were convenient and easy to learn but just never caught on the way laptops
did. Small technology such as cell phones and PDAs will rarely compete with their
larger, more capable metal brethren.
Few, if any, will choose a PDA over a laptop. By the same token, not many will
chose cell phone video over plopping down in front of the boob tube after school
or work.
This is why marketing ploys like Verizon’s V Cast will not be mainstream
or profitable. People want to eat crackers while watching the TV, not stare at
them hoping to distinguish O’Reilly’s snarly grin.
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