Digitalwall: 3G Time Comes (4) Video Phone

Without the video phone function, that would not be a real 3G.

After our discussions in the previous article, we are now aware that "communication" is the primary function that people expect from the mobile phone, as well as the biggest source of revenue for mobile communication operators. The mobile Internet will continue to thrive, but essentially, what 3G will have to address from the very beginning is people's need for communication.

We can categorize communication into the following models:

- Synchronized: Both parties have to be online simultaneously. The response of one party will be received instantaneously by the other, who will have to respond immediately. This is a model adopted for conventional telephone calls and Internet-based video conferencing.

- Semi-synchronized: Both parties need to be online simultaneously, but do not have to respond to the message from the other immediately. It is impossible for convention telephone calls, but now a reality on the Internet, thanks to instant messenger applications such as ICQ.

- Asynchronized: It is not required for both parties to be online simultaneously. Email and SMS belong to this model. The sending party should be online when sending the message, but may get offline as soon as it is done. The receiving party does not have to respond immediate. Voice mail is also one of the services of this model.

Which of the above three models is the most used one in human communication? It is an interesting question. The answer is: it depends on the platform used.

On the telephone platform (both wired and wireless), synchronized communication is the primary model. In terms of the experience of the mobile phone, people make phone calls more often than SMS. In the meantime, the usage of voice mail remains marginal and is declining each year. That indicates for most people, synchronized communication is still the largest application for telephone.

On the Internet platform (through computers or PDAs), however, asynchronized communication has the upper hand. One typical example is the extreme popularity of the email service. Comparatively, real-time communication is a much smaller application.

What, then, is the essence of the 3G handset? Is it a telephone platform or an Internet platform?

In my view, the 3G handset, with its larger screen, more displayed colors and higher data rates, is trying hared taking a route toward the Internet platform. Nevertheless, it cannot get rid of its own nature as a mobile phone. Consumers have a clear concept about handsets: they are phones instead of computers.

Therefore, the largest application of a 3G handset will definitely be synchronized communication, which will be practiced mainly through the video phone (the upgraded version of voice communication) service.

The so-called video phone is a service that allows both parties to see each other with handset during a call. As almost every 3G handset has a built-in camera or video cam, the video image transmission will not be a problem. It will be the way as you use a conventional handset: dial the number and the video transmission starts automatically when the call is connected.

In previous articles, we have mentioned that there are two communication modes for handsets: the circuit switch mode and the packet switch mode. Like conventional phones, the circuit switch mode is adopted for the video phone communication. For the mobile Internet, the packet switch mode is used, which charges subscribers in accordance with the volume of data transmission.

In very plain words, the revenue of mobile communication operators from services of the circuit switch mode (including the voice and video communication) will be much more than that from services of the packet switch mode (including the mobile Internet and MMS).

Video phone, instead of the mobile Internet, will be the main driving force of revenue growth for communication operators, because the former is much easier to use - easy enough for a 70-year-old grandpa, but no 70-year-old grandpa uses the Internet.

We often see in movies people in the future world watching the image of each other when making phone calls. Do not take it as a scene that occurs only in movies. It is going to be a reality in your life by the end of 2003. It took us five years to get accustomed to making phone calls on road. Pretty soon, we will get used to calling people while looking at screens.

But here is the question. Think about it: if you have a 3G video phone, do you want to be seen by the other end when making a phone call, or are you still able to tell your boss that you are at the office of a client when you are actually in the cinema?

If you take for granted that the largest application of the video phone is to facilitate the communication between people and that technology could enable this by leaps and bounds, you are wrong again. In the next article, I will discuss that the content is the largest application of the video phone service. (
2003/04/06 - By Digitalwall.com - Way to
China Internet/Telecom )