iPhone Proving Fertile Ground For Mobile Video Apps

Posted in iPhone News by admin. Published May 19th, 2009

The iPhone has been a boon for mobile games developers, but it looks like it’s also the device where media companies developing mobile video offerings want to be.

The NYTimes.com’s Bits Blog spoke with Jeremy Allaire, founder and CEO of Brightcove, a technology company that provides tools to media companies to create online video, is increasingly working to create more sites and apps for its clients that can be viewed over cellular and Wi-Fi networks.

Allaire told Bits, “It’s all iPhone.” His clients, such as cable network AMC which has an iPhone app for its Mad Men TV show, are “paying attention to the iPhone because the iPhone is where users will pay attention to them.” And despite the iPhone’s small share of the overall market, Allaire says its current base of around 20 million users still makes it an attractive market for media companies.

As Allaire points out, “That’s more than Comcast.”

Still, what about AT&T’s handling of video? As Bits points out, the carrier has been “inconsistent” in how much video it is prepared to support on the iPhone. Mobile video apps from Joost and CBS’s TV.com only play video over Wi-Fi, while, Apple’s own YouTube app allows over-the-air video downloads.

Allaire and his clients are apparently not that concerned about overloading the carrier’s network. According to Bits, “He said that he assumed wireless carriers would simply upgrade their networks to be able to carry video, just as wired Internet providers have.”

[Thanks: http://www.washingtonpost.com]

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