3. Applications and Services

There has been a significant enhancement of the media capability of mobile phones both for music and video. CNN reports that 80% of consumer video is now shot on phones.  Most phones support a MP3/AAC/AAC+ player.   Newer 3.5 G mobile phones have two cameras - one for high-resolution still photos and the other for lower resolution video telephony or camcorder.   Nokia introduced N95 with a 5.0 M pixel camera (2592 x 1944 pixels photos) and secondary CIF (352 x 288 pixels) video call camera.   It supports up to 160M internal memory and 2GB microSD external memory cards, a MP3 player, a GPS receiver, and WiFi 802.11b/g support.   It is reported to capture and play MPEG-4 video at 30 frames per second.

Samsung Electronics unveils a mobile phone (model: SCH-V770) equipped with a 7 mega-pixel camera at CeBIT 2005. Moving pictures can be recorded in QVGA resolution at 15-30 frames per second. Other features include video on demand (VOD), music on demand (MOD). The mobile phone supports a TV-out function where users can connect their phones to view still or motion pictures.  The front is designed as a mobile phone, while the backside is used as the digital camera with optional attachable lenses.

New mobile devices and higher data rates in 3.5G networks enable various multimedia applications and services.  In this section, we will introduce services provided by carriers over 3.5G networks. 

3.1. VOD and Live TV Services

Koreans and Japanese were first in providing video on demand services over cellular networks.  NTT DoCoMo in Japan launched the video messaging service in late 2001. KTF and SK Telecom in Korea initiated video services in 2002.  The first in Europe appeared in 2003. Sprint was first to offer mobile TV in the U.S., starting with its 1KTV service in early 2003. Cingular and Verizon jumped into the Video on Demand (VOD) service also. Cingular launched a service from MobiTV, similar to Sprint's current Sprint TV offering, and Verizon introduced VCAST, available to users of mobile phones that work on its 3.5G network. Asian countries lead the rest of the world in video related services.  All deliver a similar mix of content: news, sports, weather and entertainment. Most of it is a short video clip on demand.  Sprint is the only carrier to offer true live television in the US.  Table 3.1 shows a list of video related services offered by various carriers throughout the world.

Picture quality in VOD and live TV services varies widely by make of phone and contents.  The video quality fares best when watching the talking heads on news.   The frame rate and picture quality drop dramatically when watching sports or action shots and sometimes freezes completely when many subscribers are in a cell.   

Table 3.1: Video Services over Cellular Network

MobiTV uses two different approaches in delivering video playback across a wide variety of mobile phone platforms. For multimedia-capable phones, it uses RTSP streaming of MPEG-4 video in a 3GPP wrapper, with AMR or QCELP audio. On a high-end platform like the Treo, MobiTV delivers video at around 320 x 320 resolution at up to 80 Kbps, with AMR audio at around 8 Kbps.

For less capable phones, MobiTV uses a proprietary HTTP-like protocol to communicate between its servers and Java client, and deliver the required format, resolution, and data rate for the specific device. The original source video is first encoded in a master format at 640 x 480 resolution, using MPEG-4 video and PCM audio. Then, for delivery, the video is transcoded and stepped down to match the constraints of the target handset. At the low end, the result is Motion JPEG compression at 1 to 2 frames per second and a data rate of 12 to 15 Kbps.

3.2. Video Telephony and Video Mail

No US companies currently offer video telephony services.  Service providers in Korea and Japan provide video calls, video mail, and video conferencing services.  DoCoMo, Japan claims that their videophone is compliant with the 3G-324M standard established by the 3GPP and states that connections with videophones using different standards cannot be made.  Most mobile phones with video telephony function have "Videophone" button to make and receive video calls.  Figure 3.1 illustrate a video call button in a mobile handset and a video call made in a mobile phone in the KTF network in Korea.  Existing video telephony services in Korea and Japan are using a Circuit Switched Network (CSD) and no services uses shared high-speed data channels in HSPA or EV-DO. 

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