Mobile movies

Will people watch films on their mobiles? This was one of the questions debated at the Nokia Shorts launch on Thursday July 20. At the launch, Nokia aired 15-second short films shot on mobiles or other cameras for its last Shorts competition.

They were surprisingly good, ranging from clever filmic tricks - like shooting a couple’s Anniversary celebration backwards - to funny to touching.

The amusing Eggscape, showed an Egg escaping being turned into an omelette. Isn't he Precious was filmed from the perspective of a child on a swing being pushed by his father; so when the child swings up close all you see is dad’s mouth. Another Short shows life from the inside of a crisp packet.

In an audience debate, Kevin Macdonald, director of Touching the Void, said: “The initiative is breathing new life into short films, which had been previously been dead commercially. Short films were a kind of ‘calling card’ [for people wanting to make longer films]. What’s encouraging is that mobile phones create a new market for them.”

However he added: “No-one really wants to watch a [longer] movie on their mobile phone. Mobiles are great for things that require immediacy and I’m not sure movies are like that.”

But Elliot Grove, director of the Raindance film festival, took a more optimistic view. “People were expressing doubts about how useful the Ipod would be before it took off,” he said.

The deadline for submissions for the next Nokia Shorts competition is September 11. The competition is judged by a panel of experts, including Grove, with prizes including a trip to the Cannes film festival.

More on:
www.nokiashorts.com
www.Raindance.co.uk

Early growth of 3.5G limited by lack of handsets

The number of 3.5G mobile broadband subscribers is set to grow more than ten fold from 2.5 million in 2006 to more than 300 million in 2011, according to Future Mobile Broadband: HSDPA, EV-DO, WiMAX & LTE, a new report from Informa Telecoms & Media. It defines 3.5G mobile broadband subscribers as those using HSDPA, HSUPA or EV-DO Revision A (or B), which offer faster data than plain old third-generation mobile (3G).

However, Malik Saadi, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media and co-author of the report, says that growth in 2006-07 will be restrained by a lack of compelling devices and content. He notes that most HSDPA services are launching with only PC cards and notebooks, although a number of early handsets are also arriving. "It is striking that as of June no major vendor has unveiled plans for EV-DO Rev. A handsets, although data cards are on the way," he says.

Saadi expects handsets to start to mature in 2008, leading to a sharp increase in 3.5G handset sales and subscribers in 2008-09. By 2011, 85% of 3.5G devices sold will be handsets, and the remaining 15% will be notebooks and PC cards, says the report.

It predicts that: "Mobile WiMAX will play a relatively minor role in the mobile broadband market through 2011, largely because Mobile WiMAX notebooks and tablets will not arrive in volume until 2008-09, and compelling Mobile WiMAX handsets won't arrive until 2010.

More on:
http://telecoms.msgfocus.com/c/12rhoWmIBRmb5DsqH