The appeal of mobile media
The debate about the appeal of mobile cinema and media is very interesting in a number of contexts. On one hand, those that decry the appeal of watching a movie on a mobile phone screen or PSP might be seen in the light of the famous quote from the chairman of IBM in 1943.
?
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."? Thomas Watson
A more recent example of this kind of narrow and limited perspective came from Steve Jobs, head of Apple. When he announced the new Ipod-Photo in 2004 he commented, when asked about the obvious next step to video on the Ipod, that mobile video was ?
the wrong direction to go?, ?
the screens are too small? and developing the technology is ?
digging in the wrong place??
Just a year later he didnt so much eat these words as just ignore the fact that he said them at all with the release of the i-Pod-Video (a very Apple marketing department thing to do - much like the shift to Intel CPUs after years of decrying them as the ?Wintel? enemy and proclaiming loud the ?Megahertz Myth? which was apparently too big a myth for Apple to ignore any longer)
This
article from Russel Beattie written at the time paints the picture. "
I honestly think this is Steve trying to shape consumer opinion because of his ties to the movie industry" - and
he links to this which looks at the American market.
On the other hand,
there is this article that looks at survey data on interest levels amoung the public in watching movies (and other cinematic media) on mobile devices. 76% said they did not have any interest in doing so. So there might be something to be said for the industry hype and appeal to creators being greater than public demand?? Or are we simply not cretaing the right media that engages and exploits the mobile form - is simple re-purposing of media to the small platform enough?
My use of (and mild addiction to) the PSP has resulted in two, diametrically opposed repsonses. On one hand I think the great shame of the PSP is that too many PSP game releases have been ?ports? from existing PS2 editions. I?m yet to play a PSP game that felt like it really took advantage of the PSP size, mobility, form and function. Some of the racing games such as Wipe Out Pure come close, Syphon Filter exploited the controls well for a complex game and Metal Gear Acid works well when you play in bursts on the fly but so far the ?Killer App? is missing?.
By the same token I have also had a reverse experience with watching movies UMD releases on PSP. These are direct and almost unchanged, except for image size, ports of existing cinema and DVD titles. I expected to be in the camp of ?why would you bother watching a feature film on a PSP?? Instead i find it a totally engaging experience and as I have written about before I think the argument that only certaint types of things ?work? on mobile is fundementally flawed and largely un-substantiated?
So I?m still in two minds. I love making media for mobile devices, I enjoy watching all manner of media on mobile devices. But I find it hard to argue with the survey results above and I?m still waiting for the ?Killer app? that really exploits the unique virtues of mobile media?.
This alone is enough however - the true glory of the personal computer as publishing system/media production centre/entertainment hub did not come about with the TRS80, Microbee or the Commodore Vic20? it took time.
Posted at 01:00AM Apr 10, 2007
by Mike Jones in moving image theory |
