Mobile & Wireless Roundup - Innovation & Industry News

The “Watch & Play: New ways to interact with video” session had some interesting product demonstrations. The two that impressed me the most are from the companies Animoto and OverlayTV.

Animoto allows users to upload photos in order to have automatically created a movie. They choose the order, request emphasis on certain images, and then upload an audio track for which the movie will be based around. The algorithms behind the software analyse the audio track, and manipulate the images in time to the beats. Even if you make the video twice, the result will be different. Animoto is entirely web based, using drag and drop AJAX, with a Web2.0 look and feel.

Once the video has been created, it can be shared on which ever social platform you choose.

After the presentation, I had a chance to speak with the founder, and asked him about the possibilities of going mobile. It has been considered in their business plan, however at this time, they are concentrating finalizing the product and increasing the audience.

Overlay.TV is an advertising strategy. It moves away from the idea that commercials are played pre-reel, post-real, or mid-reel. Overlay.TV applies an overlay to the video which contains contextual and targeted advertisements. This approach is designed so that content producers can monetize from their videos. The solution also alows for hotspots for sections of the video to have hot links to product information for example.

Emphasis on the users ability to turn off the overlay was of primary concern. The user should be able to make the choice on if they wish to receive a video untouched, or to receive video that becomes interactive and allows the user to discover content and products they are interested in.

Overlay.TV does not give the content producers any limitations, it is up to them to work out what works for their consumers and experiment with different strategies.

The business model behind Overlay.TV works on an affiliate program, with revenue shared between the content producer and Overlay.TV.

I managed to catch up with Rob Lane, co-founder of Overlay.TV before his presentation, and asked what his strategy for approaching mobile was. In his eyes, he can see enormous potential with touch screen devices and technology, especially the iPhone. With music video, user can discover alternative content, such as ringtones, and other videos, and also have direct access to their MySpace page for example.

I would love to have seen some more developments in the mobile sector with mobile, but perhaps we have to see how successful the web counterparts can be before innovation to mobile in Canada will occur.

The mobile content industry is now back in full swing, preparing for all the conferences that 2008 will bring. With the likes of 3GSM in Barcelona heading the bill, and many others including MACC in Florida, many companies will be pitching their ideas for the “Killer App” of 2008.

Mobile content is an industry that thrives on end user participation, mostly targetted towards teens and early twenties who are looking to get the latest cheesy ringtone or wallpaper.

So when you look at the Christmas period, you can see that this has the opportunity for huge content sales, and market potential. New mobile phones are given as gifts, Christmas money goes towards pay as you go credit, and festive ring tones are at a high. So this should be the time when customers are exposed to content providing systems at the peak. Ensuring a quality of service, and new innovational products cross promoted will help to boost business opportunities.

Lets just hope that next Christmas period, the mobile industry does not let this powerful time of consumer targeting slip, and loose potential customers.