future platforms
PortalPlayer is committed to the development of products that support today's mobile lifestyle. With that in mind, the company sees the personal media player becoming the primary way for people to get, move and use their personal media collections everywhere.
The personal media player's small size will enable it to be easily enjoyed in the home, in the car, or on the go. It will easily link to a home audio/video receiver without the interoperability complications of complex home networks or digital media adapters. In fact, a simple docking cradle with AC power, video out and stereo audio out jacks will be the only technologies necessary to "sneaker net" the content throughout the home or take it along in the car or on vacation. Additionally, some models, like today's Rio Karma audio jukebox, will have built-in wired or wireless networking for those who want to share the content among different PCs in the household. A small onboard display will minimize cost, and users will be able to leverage TV and PC displays for viewing and control. Consumer infrared (IR) remotes will be supported for remote transport control.
Portable video will be driven by the availability of popular video content from download video service providers. Using the TV tuner and hardware encoder in a Microsoft® Windows® Media Center PC, for example, users will be able to record their favorite TV shows and transfer these to the Personal Media Player for viewing on the LCD display, or to a TV elsewhere in the home or on the road. The timing of mainstream portable video adoption will depend upon: sufficient availability of popular download content; installed base of Media Center PCs and their connection to a cable, satellite or antenna feed; support for a limited number of compression standards; and digital rights management (DRM) standards to enable sophisticated protection of the intellectual property rights of the owners.
As a result, PortalPlayer expects that consumers will ultimately carry two types of portable devices in their pockets -- personal media players that store all of their personal digital content; and communications devices that operate as mobile, cellular phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) combined. The types of devices that comprise the personal media player segment will be diverse. PortalPlayer believes personal media players will feature CD-quality (lossless) and multichannel audio playback. In addition, they will have a broad range of photo and video capture, store and playback, and incorporate digital camcorder and digital still camera functionality.
Finally, portable media players will offer a broad range of wired and wireless functionality including: wireless headsets, wireless output to multiple display types, and networked functionality with other devices through a variety of standardized connectivity options. While the number and types of devices will proliferate, they will all be used as the primary storage and playback device for personal content, and will incorporate a small form factor high-capacity hard disk drive.
