A removable optical storage disc measuring 1.2 inches was launched at the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona this month. Vmedia Research, Inc, the US-based optical media technology company behind it, believes it can redefine entertainment on mobile devices. The DVD-like miniature discs will find their way into India, where Spice Mobile is set to launch its movie phone incorporating the Vmedia players. The discs are geared to store one gigabyte of high-resolution video (yes, enough to store the nearly four-hour long 'Jodhaa Akbar' as well).
Steven B Volk, chairman & CEO, Vmedia, tells Sayantani Kar how this inexpensive medium can actually succeed where others have struggled.
Where will you launch Vmedia?
Vmedia will be launched this summer with our partner Spice Corp in India where it is bringing the world's first Vmedia-based movie phone. It will also be distributing content from Indian and Hollywood studios on Vmedia discs.
Spice plans to distribute Vmedia-enabled handsets and content in a number of markets throughout South Asia. Our primary markets are mobile consumers in Asia, North America, Europe and Latin America.
Any estimates on the total market size?
The potential addressable market worldwide is very large. Mobile phones alone are selling over 1 billion units a year. Mobile gaming is an enormous market as well.
ABI Research (a US-based analyst of the technology industry) projects that Mobile Internet Devices (MID) shipments will reach 90 million by 2012. We only need a small percentage of this market.
What's Vmedia's USP?
The true value of Vmedia is that it will provide you with a personal video entertainment experience where you have total control over what you watch, when you watch and where you watch.
All you have to do is just insert any Vmedia disc into a Vmedia-enabled device and click play. That means no downloads and no complicated DRM schemes to restrict the number of times or screens that Vmedia can be played on.
Movies, music videos and video games can all be stored in Vmedia discs. You can play these on miniature Vmedia optical drives in mobile phones, MIDs, ultra-portable computers, home TV players, mobile video game players and automobile entertainment systems.
What is your game-plan to popularise it?
Vmedia plans to license its format to multiple qualified drive and disc manufacturers globally. We are working with a number of leading mobile OEMs to make sure consumers have a range of Vmedia-enabled devices to choose from.
Vmedia has been working with movie studios since the product's inception and am glad studios are ready to make their most popular titles available on Vmedia.
What has been the biggest challenge that you have faced while developing the concept?
When Vmedia was founded five years ago, not many in the mobile device industry, the mobile networks or even movie studios believed in the concept of consumers using mobile devices to watch movies and TV shows.
Most felt mobile screens were too small for a good viewing experience. One big challenge was to convince the industry that mobile screens would grow larger and that mobile devices would have chip sets capable of processing high quality video.
What else is on the anvil?
A second generation slimmer drive will be out later this year. 2GB dual layer discs and recordable Vmedia discs are next in line for launch in 2009.
