On Monday 5 November, Google announced its Android mobile platform and the Open Handset Alliance, with 33 other companies, aim to accelerate application development for mobile devices. In essence the goal is to develop an open platform for videos on mobile devices.
This push to openness in mobile can be seen as an attempt to emulate what’s happened in the broadband video industry over the last five years – YouTube, iTunes, Hulu, NYTimes.com, MLB.com, Cosmopolitan.com and many other websites have unleashed video on an open platform.
The open platform presented by broadband video delivery is an opportunity to bypass traditional broadcast as producers can reach a target audience directly with their video. In other words they do not have to rely on a terrestrial, satellite or telco broadcaster to get their programme aired. If Android succeeds, the same will be true for the mobile video sector.
