Word on the street is Helio is having some problems.
This on the heels of Sprint’s massive writedown, and Amp’d Mobile self-destructing last summer.
I have news for any of you trying to get rich off of making Mobile Video content.
You aren’t going to. Ever.
There’s money in ringtones, there’s money in providing instant services and info via SMS, but downloading anything over a megabyte is a going to be a loser until the cell phone industry radically revamps.
In the US especially, the networks are too slow, the cell phone compaies are reluctant to open up the “deck” to outside programs and open web standards. They want to be top-down and own the entire user experience.
The companies want to charge for the content and then charge for the network usage ontop of that. So a one to two minute clip is going to set you back $3-4.
Think about that price point when you can buy a TV episode from iTunes for $1.99.
The iPhone is changing the cellphone content business to some degree, and we’ll see how well Android does, but until then companies that are betting on peeps making mciropayment for content (i.e., Amp’d and Helio) are doomed to the shitpile of obsurity.
You as a producer should only be making non-exclusive deals with them as well as providing MP4s of your content that can be played on any device. That way your ads will work wherever the content is viewed.
Be platform agnostic.
1 Comment
February 29, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Platform agnostic? Tell that to SAG and AFTRA. I’ve said this numerous times in my podcast and blog.
Oh, wait, maybe an new media acting union ought to be organized.
Just sayin’.