VideoSharing services are taking shape for cellphones

[Vision]

Article below was extracted from today's Boston Globe. This should portend well for those who own VideoSharing domains.

Video Sharing services are taking shape for cellphones

By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff | July 23, 2007

Imagine this: You're standing in the fitting room at the mall, trying to pick a dress. You call a friend, but words can't quite describe the drape of the fabric. So you press a button and turn your conversation into a live video stream.

As video has fallen from its professionally produced pedestal into a medium people routinely use in their everyday life online, live video sharing is beginning to make its way onto cellphones.

Today, AT&T launches its Video Share service in nearly 160 markets, including Boston, allowing people with compatible phones to stream their baby's first step, a grocery-store dilemma, or breaking news to one another by pressing a button in the middle of a phone call.

Meanwhile, Westford start-up Aylus Networks Inc. is developing a platform that will allow video and images to stream between mobile users during calls. The company secured $15 million in venture funding last month.
"People are finding uses to sharing videos of themselves, and with the YouTubes of the world, the rise of online communities, we are seeing a democratization of video," said Lewis Ward , research manager specializing in wireless entertainment at IDC Corp, an industry research firm.

Live cellphone video is an extension of what's happening online.
Mobile carriers such as AT&T have spent billions building next-generation wireless networks capable of carrying voice and Internet, video, music, and other data. Even so, most people continue to use their phones for calling and text messaging. Services such as AT&T's live video streaming, which costs 35 cents per minute a la carte, or -- through the cheapest plan -- $4.99 a month for 25 video minutes, represent one way to get customers used to using their phones for more than just talking.

Other, similar technology has also generated interest from investors.
"We believe wireless operators will continue to invest heavily in technology that improves person-to-person communications. Real-time multimedia sharing services will both improve communications and drive growth for the wireless industry," Paul Ferri, a managing partner at Matrix Partners and an Aylus Networks board member, said in a statement.

Sprint Nextel Corp. is working toward a live video-streaming product and already allows users to record and then send video messages to friends, according to spokesman Mark Elliott. Verizon Wireless customers can send video messages to one another, but the company is not working on a live video-streaming product, according to a spokesman.

Aylus Networks has not disclosed partnerships with any major carriers for its product, which allows people to share video or on-screen content during a conversation.

"People point to things, pull out photographs and trouble-shoot problems while talking on their mobile phone," said Shamim Naqvi , founder and chief executive of Aylus Networks in a statement. "Aylus's technology allows this natural mode of communication to occur."

Using AT&T's new service last week was simple. A button pops up during a call, allowing callers to start a video stream and continue talking on speaker phone. What may be more of a pain is getting the service itself and finding opportunities to use it. Video Share is available only on four handsets and in areas served by the company's fast data network. Even Apple's iPhone, touted for its multimedia platform, does not run the program because it works on AT&T's older network.

Analysts said live video sharing would be a niche service that would take awhile to catch on, since it will require people to buy enabled, compatible handsets -- unlike services like text messaging, which work on any phone and any provider's network. Video conferencing, the landline equivalent, never caught on, and the demographic for video sharing on a phone is unclear.

Similar services are already available in Asia, which often leads the United States in cellphone technology by several years, but even there it has not yet taken off, Ward said.

"I think it will be niche market appeal -- a lot of times you may not want someone to see when you are on the other end of the line," said Jill Aldort, senior analyst at the Yankee Group. "There is something to be said for going incognito, for privacy."

Carolyn Y. Johnson can be reached at [email protected].