Nokia multimedia VP Mark Selby knows how to command the attention of an audience. I’m not sure I’d agree with him though that the mobile industry has always been about user-generated content - that being voice. There’s a distinction between communication and creativity, and I think the exciting thing about UGC (much as I hate the term) is that it is not just about generating something but about creating it. Perhaps that’s something that will be touched on more tomorrow, which is slated as user-generated content day.
-- Mitch Lazar, VP business development at Yahoo, aired the industry frustration about interoperability: content producers often have to produce multiple version of content to work across multiple devices with different screen sizes, different processing power and so on. Selby said those standards will work themselves out in time. “At the moment, from a device manufacturer’s point of view, we are all working behind the scenes to ensure interoperability and working closely with infrastructure providers to ensure that interoperability. Today there are 2.5 billion GSM subscriptions out there and it’s in everyone’s interest to find ways to reduce the costs in the cycle and bring the kind of user experience that people are looking for. And I say ‘users’ but these are not just users - these are citizens and creators, and we need to find a way of embracing that as well.”
-- The proliferation of devices continues to astound: Selby said Nokia has sold 10 million of its multimedia N Series devices this year, expects to sell 80 million P3 players this year and 150 million FM radio devices. He outlined three categories of mobile TV: simulcast TV, streaming TV and video-on-demand and said Nokia has learnt a lot of lessons in the past year: “One can see a range of opportunities in these areas but the really interesting thing is who mixes them together - they shouldn’t be looked at in isolation. If you have a program that’s being broadcast that’s highly popular, you need to look at streaming services and VOD services to complement support. We need to look at this in a different way.” Selby also predicts that paid-for UGC will be a major trend and said he’d heard that someone in the UK had clocked up £2,700 in one week from UGC submissions. I’d love to know on what service because I once looked at 3’s much-touted SeeMeTV service - and that pays a user between 1p and 7.5p each time their clip is watched by someone else. You do the maths, but I’m guessing that this guy didn’t earn £2,700 that way. More likely a newsworthy mobile phone pic that was syndicated by the likes of Scoopt.