The IP Development Network Blog

There's a time and a place for most things in life.

People, and commuters in particular, have a lot of dead time. Monster.co.uk published some data in March that showed that 70% of the UK workforce spend more than 20 minutes getting to work, while 41% spend more than 40 minutes. The Office of National Statistics says this is 28 minutes for men and 22 for women and gives a breakdown by region. And its the same again coming home... The Times says that we each do on average 2,900 miles a year getting to and from work in the UK, although we are quite lucky compared to some countries. Check out Worldmapper's unique view of this.

1.7 million people commute every day by rail, while an additional 2.4 million travel by bus. Newspapers and have historically filled the dead time for those people, giving them the chance to catch up on what they missed while their lives were flying past at 100 miles an hour. For a lot of people, it might be the only downtime in their lives that is truly theirs: they don't have to fight the spouse and kids for the remote control when they are alone on the 8 o'clock into Kings Cross. It is no surprise then to see people with little white earphones in a world of their own, giving the brain something to do while their eyes stare into space.

It is funny to see the odd person, all suited and booted playing on his PSP. He's smiling and every now and then will twitch violently as he presses one of the controls. Then he'll remember where he is and resume his composure, until the next monster jumps out on him. You can feel other people sniggering at this excess, much in the way as people sniggered at the first people to get mobile phones. What a show off, eh? What's wrong with a newspaper, mate?

It is the perfect time for mobile video, except it is not the perfect place. We have been promised trains with WiFi for many years now, but if they struggle to carry enough passengers, you can be fairly confident they will struggle to carry enough data packets. Like most things on the railways, maybe only the Japanese will get this right...?

So there's all this time in which the competition for attention is much lower and yet the services can't be reached. Then you get off the train and can get all the services, but don't have the time to give them any attention. Aagghh!

Adobe's announcement last week that it was going to make Flash videos available offline could quickly change all of this. Equally, Sling Media's recordable format revealed at Telco 2.0 but as yet not released achieves the same result. Now you can get the services when you have the connection and watch them when you have the time.

Timeshifted TV is the killer ap for mobile video. Perhaps you missed Eastenders last night because you were putting the kids to bed? Don't worry, you can watch it on the tube on your way in. Maybe you would prefer highlights of last night's sport? No, how about YouTube's top 20 chart...?

So how is all of this data going to get onto the phone? Mobile data networks might work for some, but pricing is going to be a serious problem. The best the market can offer is T-Mobile's Web'n'Walk at £7.50 for 1 GB which is already 3 times as much as the most expensive fixed broadband product. With the accessibility advantage gone and the price three times higher, mobile data is going to really struggle to win this business.

It seems that mobile data may be the answer to the wrong question. For sure, the time critical stuff (information and communication) is well suited, but how time critical is entertainment? Or more to the point, how much is it worth to get live as opposed to near-live entertainment? Not as much as mobile data networks charge, that is for sure.

This may not be what the companies that spent £20bn on 3G licenses want to hear, but it is not just a commercial issue. Coverage on the commute is dire - you can spend the whole journey today just getting onto the network.

The obvious conclusion is what has been termed sideloading. This occurs in the home (or occasionally in the office) where the device can be connected to the Internet using wires. The data travels over the broadband connection to reach the phone, is stored there and can be retrieved for later reading, listening or viewing. Podcasts are an early example of how content can be created and subscribers can automatically tee up new downloads when the device is next connected. Offline mobile video is a simple extension of existing iPod behaviour mashed up with text, audio and video RSS feeds giving the "phone" the ability to compete head on with MP3 players, newspapers and books for the attention of tomorrow's commuter.

# posted by Jeremy Penston @ 4/19/2007 02:06:00 PM

Thursday, 19 April 2007

Mobile video