The next step in this movie viewing evolution is web streaming, which represents immediate gratification to consumers who wish to watch anytime, anywhere. Taking in a movie certainly couldn’t get any easier or convenient; and that sounds perfect, right? Not so fast, Mobile Carrier Service Providers (e.g. AT&T) are aware of this trend too and are attempting to charge users for the actual data they consume, which would be a significant amount for an entire movie. [$12/GB, or typically $50/mo for a 5GB cap.  If you use more, there is an automatic charge of an additional $10/GB over your limit.

With these additional charges or cap usage limits being put in place, users may be forced to limit their intake in fear of being charged overages or incurring additional usage fees. This is where the ongoing issue of bandwidth resource restrictions comes to the forefront again. As more movie watchers emerge, they take up more bandwidth from the Mobile Carrier Service Providers. During peak usage hours, this has created numerous user problems, with noticeably slower or inadequate service levels.

Higher Internet Service fees could end up costing companies like Netflix, who are among the largest bandwidth users. While it does seem fair to have users pay for the bandwidth that they consume, Netflix, for instance, may have to alter the way they stream movies to avoid upsetting customers. In Canada, they have already downgraded the quality of streaming movies so users consume less bandwidth and are less likely to incur overages while sacrificing some degree of quality. Alternatives to Carrier networks services are Wi-Fi Connections or wired Internet Service.  Wi-Fi is relatively free, but not always available and Wired Internet costs less than wireless and  runs $ 0.25/GB..

This may only be a stop gap solution as the downgraded video quality may work for awhile, but what about the increasing popularity of using smart phones to watch movies? Data usage caps on smart phones are more easily exceeded and with the rise in the use of these devices to stream movies, users may be looking at more expensive bills. This could cause some consumers to curb their usage patterns, but with little alternative, there may not be a choice unless another solution is offered that requires less bandwidth, but also allows the Netflix’s of the world to sell their movie viewing experience.

With the advent of memory cards designed to store large amounts of data, specifically the technology produced by Mo-DV, movies can be downloaded onto smart phone or wireless devices via the memory card. Of course, this would require a fee, but streaming over the web would not be necessary and there would be no steadily increasing usage fees set down by the Service Providers. The quality of the movie would also remain, which would allow the Netflix services to remain true to form. Taking into account the interests of all parties involved, memory cards are a viable way to proceed for web based movie distribution companies.

Once given assurances from Intel, the manufacturer of the technology, that the code was utterly unbreakable, the studios set out to make Blu-ray the gold standard for all recorded movies and television shows. They spent a lot of money and exerted their influence every which way enticing consumers to adopt the technology and the corresponding player units. Seemingly, everyone had a stake in the new technology. The stage was set for what could now turn out to be a short-lived run of success.

It is a very real possibility that Blu-ray discs could go the way of CD’s and DVD’s with copying and content dissemination becoming rampant. As time passes, this will become worse and Hollywood doesn’t have an answer for what to do next. Simply recalling these players at this point or having new software installed in them is not an option.

One obvious solution is to switch to a new medium like a flash based memory in the form of memory cards and USB flash drives. Blu-ray technology is read-only and is based around optical memory, whereas flash based memory is read-write with much better copy protection and the ability to collect analytical content on the card.

Some suspect that VOD streaming is the wave of the future and could be easily undertaken. However, with bandwidth limits being consistently consumed by a myriad of new internet capable devices all downloading/streaming more video than ever before, how long can we expect this technology will continue to bend and not break? There is an inherent danger in treating internet bandwidth as a limitless and disposable resource.

As more content is pirated and the use of video increases, the time is now to adopt a new video medium or what could be termed the new DVD. Expecting Hollywood to seriously look for new alternatives to pursue may be foolhardy considering they are still making a healthy profit and not yet feeling a serious financial pinch and may not for some time. Until they do, don’t expect the search for and adoption of a new medium to happen anytime soon.

When new options are examined, expect Mo-DV’s technology, centering around flash media, the protection of content and the flexibility to download new content from USBs, RD devices, and compatible kiosks to be a legitimate choice in new distribution mediums. These cards can be re-used ensuring long-term value to the consumer while still allowing studios to make a profit for their films or television programs. These are some of the steps that will eventually be taken to ensure that pirating will be more difficult as well as potentially easing load demands on internet bandwidth.

Both providers and publishers don’t want interruptions during content streaming or downloads and are researching solutions to this issue. With the advent of video phoning capability on all new smartphones, where one video phone call requires 100 times the bandwidth of a voice call, this squeezes the capacity of the already strained carrier and Wi Fi networks. Add in the added burdens of “cloud” computing imposing new loads on these networks and we see that 4G was a drop in the bucket for what really is needed for mobile communications, regardless of the Obama proposed 500Mhz of new spectrum.

Four Facts:

1. Video phoning is addictive despite “Can I let myself be seen early in the morning” syndrome.

2. Within a few years, all phones will be smart phones with video phoning capability.

3. Until the current bottlenecks in the wired internet (even with fiber to the curb) are solved there is no hope for high quality of service required for widespread mobile streaming to ever be accommodated.

4. demand for YouTube video over wired and mobile networks will only increase in the future.

As the difficulty accessing streaming content escalates, there will be increasing demand for a solution to ensure uninterrupted delivery of content to phones, tablets and laptops. As this demand forces further innovation, memory cards and USB Flash will become a more prominent and readily available solution that will become part and parcel with end devices allowing users to obtain, store and access new content at their convenience. The question then becomes, “where do the users obtain the new content?”

A viable solution may be the introduction of kiosks where smart phone users, equipped with tiny memory, in-phone memory or storage cards can download and save content that could otherwise be corrupted or fail to be delivered in a polished manner. Before the widespread adoption of the smart phone, there were internet access points or similar kiosks located in airports, malls and other public places.

The hardware for such access points is relatively cheap and easy to manufacture. They can also be easily installed in any number of public places. These stations will allow users with memory cards to simply place their mobile device into a cradle on the kiosk and quickly download movies, academic materials, television shows and music. Once on the memory card, the content can not only be saved and played back on that device, but can be transferred to other, more traditional devices, like televisions and laptops.

The distribution of content for mobile devices will continue; it will simply take on a new form and provide manageable access and uninterrupted, quality content via memory card storage.

As mobile and interactive technology continues to evolve, there will be many more devices, meaning many more touch points for each user, all the while, using more and more bandwidth. Televisions will have PC like capabilities to going along with the ever-advancing PC, iPads, smart phones, ipods, net books, and even vehicle based GPS units.

With more and more video related content becoming available on an even greater array of devices, it becomes even more crucial to adopt better distribution methods for video, the most significant bandwidth muncher. Simply crossing your fingers and relying on uninterrupted streaming won’t cut it anymore. There are already numerous bandwidth issues with smart phones and as these additional devices reach greater capabilities and propagate, there is certain to be even more issues that will severely limit the effectiveness of the available bandwidth.

At the Apple press conference where Steve Jobs was showcasing the new iPad, there were bandwidth issues in the room to the point where he had to ask those assembled to turn off their phones. Video conferencing on mobile devices, for instance, uses 30x more capacity than a voice call consuming a mammoth amount of bandwidth. Similar disruptions and inconveniences are on the rise.

As these issues continue to mount, the demand for memory cards for mobile devices will increase. They will be relatively inexpensive to buy and use than the alternative of paying for ever escalating bandwidth costs by providers. Cable companies and carriers are already limiting bandwidth availability and charging higher fees as they realize the scarcity of this bandwidth resource.

These factors will undoubtedly discourage use of wide band, particularly for video content, making it unaffordable for many users. As the consumption demands of mobile technology rise, there will always be a way around such problems. It’s either that or postponing the instant gratification that many users have become used to and I don’t believe many of them would be willing to consider the latter.

With the emerging convenience of having the kind of computing power and informational resource at our fingertips, we have come to expect this unprecedented access. Moreover, teenagers and the youth who have only known and enjoyed the experience of this kind of convenience and instant gratification, will only want it quicker, better and more robust. They will expect nothing less because this is what they have become used to; they have been weaned on the luxury of a seemingly limitless well of information and communication possibilities. The next generation of PCs and communication devices will have to meet this need as the focus to accommodate the young generation and secure their loyalty throughout their lifetimes will be paramount for every business involved in any segment of the mobile computing industry.

A growing concern with this type of grand expectation isn’t whether the devices will continue to become smaller, lighter and faster, (they undoubtedly will) but what type of infrastructure will be required to support the sheer volume of users at any given time as usage times and operational costs increase. The usage fees will also certainly increase with this type of dependency, but so too will the amount of storage and bandwidth capacity required to support these little PCs or next generation smart phones.
With 3G iphone users, there have already been notable traffic slowdowns and restrictions in storage space. For instance, even one YouTube user in certain areas may cause connection issues. With more users and more frequency, this issue may increase, as there just won’t be the available bandwidth to handle this demand. The evolution of users in the 4G network may help to assuage this slowdown with more bandwidth in the same number of packets, but this may only delay the inevitable. There also is the notion of “bandwidth reuse”, but that could ultimately be restricted in the wireless realm.

The other solution is portable storage space and pre-packaged content that will allow access to information without accessing or further burdening available bandwidth. This can include content such as feature films, television shows, sporting events and various other forms of information and entertainment that will be downloadable and stored for later use. This content can also be overwritten in order to store new content thus providing a reusable resource.

The eventual solution to this bandwidth problem may come only after exhausting countless other possibilities, but the continued evolution of this technology will need an answer to this question. The other question then remains, will young users be patient enough to wait until it happens or will they have a choice?