RealNetworks launches mobile media products
Posted on Tue, Feb. 19, 2002
SEATTLE (Reuters) - RealNetworks Inc. Tuesday unveiled new software for sending audio and video over wireless networks, the latest step by the Internet media pioneer to get a foothold in the nascent mobile market.
Seattle-based RealNetworks is launching RealSystem Mobile, a version of its RealSystem iQ software that Web site operators and corporate networks use to broadcast video and audio over the Internet.
The company also announced deals with Intel Corp. to optimize Real's software for use with the microprocessor giant's chips for mobile phones and handheld computers, and with consultancy Cap Gemini Ernst & Young to offer customers a package combining Real's technology and Cap Gemini's operational services.
Real, best known for its RealOne software for playing music or video on a personal computer, is also preparing to launch a version of RealOne for Pocket PC handheld computers based on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system.
``Real has been thinking about the world beyond the PC for some time,'' Sharon Goldstein, a product manager for mobile services, said in an interview. ``So we consider this to be our coming out party.''
The Mobile version of RealSystem builds in extra features that focus on sending such content to a variety of portable devices like smart cell phones and handheld computers fitted with wireless connections, Goldstein said.
The new software debuts as Real is seeing sales of its regular systems software bottom out. The core systems business was badly knocked by the dot-com implosion and the slowing economy, which crimped corporate technology budgets.
While executives have said systems growth will restart this year, Real isn't expecting a quick payoff from mobile multimedia services, which Goldstein compared to the advent of audio on the Internet about 7 years ago, when the Web was limited to pokey speeds that allowed only tinny audio to seep through.
``What we see as being compelling are audio applications and short, location-specific video,'' Goldstein said. ``We see this as very similar to how the Internet developed.''
Real has laid other stepping stones on the path to mobile services, such as deals with Texas Instruments and Hitachi, two major makers of mobile phone chips, to support its media technology. Mobile phone giant Nokia is also using Real's software, most visibly on its groundbreaking 9210 device that combines a phone with a color screen and digital organizer.
RealSystem Mobile will be able to send content to networks based on different technologies, from so-called 2.5G low-speed services being deployed in the United States to faster 3G networks that Europe and Asia are focusing on.
The system can also serve up video content in the budding MPEG-4 format, which is widely seen as the future of Internet-based video but is still tied up with licensing and technical issues.
Real, which has managed to offer a successful subscription service through RealOne for the PC market, will also work with mobile companies to sell similar services for mobile devices, Goldstein said.
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