Article Title: "Movies Unspool On Handheld Gear "
Author: DAVID NOACK
Section: Internet & Technology
Date: 10/1/2002
On a recent flight from Minneapolis to Los Angeles, Matt Coddington reclined in his
chair and settled in to watch a movie.
But he didn't have to pay for the in-flight film. Nor did he have a laptop or portable DVD
player.
Instead, Coddington watched the movie "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou" on his Pocket PC,
a personal digital assistant that's equipped with the bells and whistles of a personal
computer.
PDAs now have greater processing power, colorful screens and lots of memory. That
allows them to handle movies or other forms of entertainment.
"I plugged in my headphones and thoroughly enjoyed myself," said Coddington, who
runs pocketpclouisville.com, a Web site for Pocket PC enthusiasts in Louisville, Ky. "It
was great. I also like downloading the latest movie trailers, as well as a variety of
animated short films."
Once viewed as portable tools for jotting notes, keeping addresses and phone numbers -
and maybe playing a few games - handheld devices have come a long way. They're now
challenging the traditional computer in many respects.
Handheld devices fall into two main categories, much like the PC world is divided
between Windows and Apple.
On one side is Palm Inc. It created and licenses an operating system that runs on Palm
devices as well as those from Handspring Inc. and others. A new version of the Palm
operating system, version 5, was recently released to developers.
Then there's the Pocket PC family of PDAs, which is based on Microsoft Corp.'s CE
software.
Hewlett-Packard Co. and others make Pocket PC devices.
Coddington sees Pocket PCs as well suited to video and animation. It helps that the
devices run Macromedia Inc.'s Flash software. Flash lets people create and play animated
programs.
"From entertainment to productivity and training, Flash on the Pocket PC is a gold mine,"
he said. "The especially nice thing is that someone can develop Flash content for the PC
and convert it to the Pocket PC environment with ease. Write the application once and
you're set."
While the growth of PDAs has soared in the last several years, sales of the devices
slowed in 2001. A more moderate level of growth is expected this year, says research
firm Gartner Dataquest Inc.
It projects shipments of 15.5 million PDAs in 2002. That's an 18% rise from last year's 13
million units. In 2001, the industry's growth rate was about the same - 18.3% - quite a
drop from 2000's rate of 114%.
The market is shifting toward devices with color displays, more powerful processors and
more storage capacity.
That's why you're seeing movies and videos pop up on PDAs. But the technology still
needs some tweaking, says Ram Chellappa, an assistant professor at the University of
Southern California.
"News and sports highlights clips are likely to be more successful," Chellappa said.
"However, for real-time delivery to be effective studios would need to create specialized
clips."
Web sites that display video already offer different kinds of clips, he notes. For instance,
MSNBC offers a video clip for low-speed Internet connections and another clip for highspeed
connections. Such sites could do the same thing for handheld video.
For now, watching movies and video on PDA devices is still a novelty, Chellappa says.
"People with video on their PDAs just have it there for fun and to show off to friends," he
said. He does cite some practical applications, however, such as medicine and real estate.
Many PDA owners say they're just looking for a little diversion. Frequent fliers often find
a lack of entertainment choices at 35,000 feet, says Brad Isaac, administrator of
pocketpcaddict.com. Having video on a PDA is a nice option.
The quality of video on a Pocket PC is good, he says, depending on the amount of storage
available.
If someone has a storage card with 256 megabytes or more, it's possible to
watch a 2-hour movie with high resolution and sound.
Already, companies are bringing feature films, video and original content to handheld
screens.
One firm providing content is Mazingo Network Inc., which is based in San Francisco.
Subscribers to Mazingo's service can choose from up to 1,500 channels of content,
including dozens of full-length movies.
"Mazingo is currently negotiating with major movie studios to create a new 'window' of
distribution that can take place after theatrical release," said Chief Executive Brooks
Haden.
Mazingo offers free and subscription-based services. The starting price - $7.91 a month -
provides access to electronic books, news, weather, movies and TV shows.
"As PDAs get better and more robust, there's no question that consumers are considering
PDAs as mobile entertainment devices," said Haden.
Mazingo's content includes promotional spots for a handful of new NBC TV shows.
The company also has agreements with the newspaper USA Today to provide text
headlines and daily video newscasts. The Weather Channel provides weather forecasting
services.
Earlier this year, Lions Gate Home Entertainment inked a multiyear pact with Pocket PC
Films to distribute videos on handhelds.
The independent studio will provide Pocket PC Films more than 1,300 titles to be
distributed on a CD-ROM. The films are designed to be downloaded from PCs onto
Pocket PCs or Palm computers.
Some of the titles include "Eve's Bayou," "Leprechaun," "The Best of Times" and "The
Big Easy." Pocket PC Films is a subsidiary of TuneIn Entertainment.
AI
