Read an interesting article today in the globeandmail about bringing mobile video over to the land of upright Mounties. Apparently XM Canada told analysts yesterday that XM Radio (the US version) is in the process of introducing video-equipped receivers that may eventually drive a significant portion of the industry's revenue. Meanwhile Sirius Canada CEO Mark Redmond said their own technology is aimed at the "backseat viewers" such as children who want to watch music videos in cars. "It's probably late 2006 at best," Redmond said.
Now, we know the upcoming Samsung Helix and Pioneer Inno will be supporting JPEG video for clip playback, but no other signs of a PVP (Portable Video Player) have reared their head lately.
Last month, our heads were swimming with thoughts mobile video delivered via satellite radio network, but nothing concrete. There was the C&C Air (watch video) that mentioned support for XM or SIRIUS when introduced in the US later this year, but that seemed more like a PSP competitor that simply might support satellite radio.
Then there was this blog post by On2 Technologies CEO Doug McIntyre hinting towards an On2 VP7 enabled portable video device. There it clearly says that the video content is downloaded via the XM Satellite network. Also Doug talks about scheduling of video content:
"You don’t even have to do anything, the device can automatically download schedules content, kind of like a TiVo. When you wake up in the morning all of your new shows, news, etc. is ready to go with you out the door."
Very interesting stuff. Further inquires to On2 pretty much led to a deadend (I can post the email exchange, but it really wasn't all that fruitful). Was the post a misguided reference to the Inno and/or Helix? Doubtful, but possible. And I don't think he was confusing the Helix/Inno with the in-vehicle video shown at CES 2006 - so there may be a mystery XM PVP device in the horizon.
And then there's SIRIUS. Not only are they looking into the backseat kind of mobile video (coincidence that music videos were mentioned?) but the last reports we heard they were on-track for a mid-2006 release of SIRIUS' own Portable Video Player.
With all the hubbub speculation about what "fun new products" Apple will announce next week, and how we're all secretly praying the Touchscreen Video iPod (fake Photochop pictured above) could one day be real - one has to wonder how far behind are XM and SIRIUS? Every year we're heard about satellite video at every CES, so this is something they have been thinking on for quite sometime. Will we finally see it all come to fruition soon?
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