PMP is currently at the early adopter stage, but it is not expected to go any farther.
[+] PMP, an expensive tool for professionals
Stimulated by the hot sales of iPOD and other MP3 players around the world, manufacturers are now on the move to launch the next wave: Portable Media Player (PMP). Shortly after the introduction, the product has been overwhelmed by compliments. Some brands have even got out of stock.
As its name indicates, PMP is different from MP3 players in that it can store and display photos and movies. Of course, as movies could easily be dozens of GBs in size, most PMPs choose to use hard disks as their storage media and, therefore, look quite clumsy.
Why don't they use optical storage media? If PMPs are mainly used to play movies, it will be ok to use small-sized DVD as the storage media. Yet the problem is if they could be connected directly with computers, it would seem strange to use CD or DVD. Doesn't it save a lot of troubles to download movies directly into PMPs?
The new product, which I once called jokingly "the fast food box", is nothing cheap. It ranges from USD 300 all the way up to USD 600. To a large extent, the price depends on the following factors: the size of the built-in hard disk, availability of external memory card slots, LCD display size and resolution, and brand.
Surprisingly, most PMPs have brilliant LCD displays fine enough for both photos and movies. Even more surprising is the duration of their batteries, which could be up to five hours, long enough to watch two movies.
Who will carry such a thing around just to be able to watch movies? Of course those people are early adopters. My visits to many electronic stores have confirmed that the majority of these people are travelers and photographers (who use the product as a memory to store their digital photos when they are outside).
[+] The challenge for watching movies on the move
As a matter of fact, portable DVD players have been on the shelves of 3C stores (or duty-free shops at airports) long before the introduction of PMPs, which is a solid proof of the demand for watching movies on the move. Personally, I had an experience of bringing a notebook on travel to be able to watch movies onboard a plane, but ended up with getting that notebook out of power.
Yet it is not easy to convert movies into the right format for PMPs. In the first place, you need to know what compression format your PMP supports, the subtitle format or the sound effect format, otherwise you would have to watch silent movies, or movies without subtitles.
Also, most movies are converted from DVDs. For many computer players, maybe it's no big deal to download a free software online, install it, use it to grab a movie with the copy-proof protection into his/her computer and compress it into the format acceptable for the PMP. For general consumers, however, this is too much.
In addition, we all know that, just like MP3s which are used to play illegal music in most cases, PMPs also can be used to watch illegal movies. It is not difficult at all for skillful computer players to download movies that have been converted into the right format from a P2P network.
As a matter of fact, most ordinary consumers do not know where to get movies. With a bought or rented DVD, it could really be a hard nut for them to convert the content into the PMP. In addition, isn't it illegal to crack the copy-proof protection with a special program?
[+] The opportunity of substitutes?
In fact, many portable devices are being integrated into handsets. At least it is very clear that the integration of handsets with digital cameras goes along that path. As handsets offer increasingly more pixels and additional slots for memory cards, this trend is inevitable.
Currently, digital cameras still have a superior position in terms of pixels over handsets. Yet one day when the pixel is no longer a problem (for example, when a 5 million pixel handset sells at only USD 200), the integration of digital cameras and handsets will be achieved, and standalone digital cameras will be forced onto a special purpose-oriented path, for some hardcore players.
For handsets, the next even more powerful wave of integration will be that with MP3s. In addition to the function of high-pixel cameras, handsets are expected to be able to play MP3 music. Pretty soon, handsets will integrate with MP3 players.
With the arrival of the 3G time, watching movies will be a basic function for all handsets. The only headache for handset manufacturers at this point of time is how to jam a 40GB hard drive into a small handset. It seems that PMPs still have a role to play as long as no major breakthrough is achieved in the storage technology.
Nevertheless, PMPs do have a distinct advantage: the larger LCD display. To watch movies, you would want a bigger display, even if it is a portable device. This is a problem for handsets, the answer to which will lie on the technology breakthrough in the user interface for handset manufacturers.
Despite their hot sale at the present time, PMPs will get into a sale bottleneck pretty soon. Just look at the identities of the user and the usage of the product, you will see it is true. The trend is to take a road towards smaller size and cheaper price. What can be predicted is, compared with handsets, PMP will become a special-purposed device for some hardcore players.
2005/05/29 - By Digitalwall.com - Way to
China Internet/Telecom )
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