A New Wave of Mobile Video Products Packs More into Less
January 18th, 2006A mobile video explosion is under way, typified by products that combine two or more previously separate functions. Highlights seen at CES came from both small and large companies, with all the players scrambling to find the right combination of features at the right price for mass acceptance.
Ken Werner
Senior Analyst and Editor
of HDTV Retailer
Steve Marsland
Market Analyst and Contributing
Editor for Insight Media
The convergence champ at CES was the resurrected Commodore brand (Baarn, the Netherlands; www.commodoreworld.com), with its new Navigator Combo. This remarkable product, which is the size and weight of two decks of playing cards, has a 3.6-inch color QVGA screen and offers a staggering collection of functions:
- Touch-screen control;
- Portable GPS with pre-loaded maps of North America;
- 20GB hard disk, and the ability to download and store up to 24 full-length movies;
- Music playback and FM radio;
- Voice recording;
- Image playback for photos;
- Storage for eBooks;
- Over 800 available games of which 90 are free.
The Navigator Combo is capable of MP3 decoding and plays both MP3 and WMA audio files, is DRM9 compatible for legal downloading of music files, and is able to play both MPEG and DivX video files.
The European launch - with European map sets - is scheduled for March; US launch is target for later this year at an estimated MSRP of $699, and Commodore is seeking US retail partners and distributors for the product.
But Commodore is not resting on its Amiga-inspired laurels. The company is already working on the nex-gen Combo, which will offer WiFi access, a larger 4.3-inch screen, Bluetooth capability for a wireless headset, and digital satellite radio. A separate new product, targeted for summer release, will provide access to regular digital broadcast TV.
Motorola (Schaumburg, IL; www.motorola.com) took a different approach when it showed how a cell phone the company is now developing will be able to access a TV program guide from a WiFi node, select programs to be recorded by a DVR, and send the instructions to the DVR over the internet.
Talk about convergence products - and this is just the beginning. Expect to see many more variations on these themes in the coming months and years. Which combination of features, services, benefits and pricing will work? We have no idea, but cell phones that just take photographs are already looking antique.