mobileentertainment's Podcast

This has nothing to do with mobile entertainment -- but things like this is why I love going to China. This was taken near Pudong Airport (Shanghai)... laundry laid out accross a sidewalk... or maybe it was an art installation! In a way this reminds me of the current business attitude in China -- JUST DO IT! Also I have never seen anyone dry kids trousers on hangars like this in America or Europe, but it is simple, cheap, efficient and gets the job done -- again, similar to the Chinese approach to business.

Everywhere in China, high-rise apartments and offices on the rise. This is in Dongguan.

The remains of a delicious fish-head meal in Shenzhen, courtesy of my generous hosts at Haoxi. I have to say, it was delicious. The Chinese say the head is the best part of a fish, and they prefer parts of the animal that are in motion (like the feet of a chicken) to the rest of the animal (like chicken breast). Did I mention "fresh" means REALLY fresh in China? -- they bring out the flopping fish for your approval prior to cooking. International dining tip number 324! (photo taken with Nokia 3230)

Another friend of mine who lives in Shanhgai told me a trick that experienced diners use... The reason they show you the live fish (or crab, eel, etc.) is to convince you that the animal didn't die on it's own (horrible!) and has been floating in a bucket in the back for a week and a half. Some less-than-reputable chefs have been known to show the diners the live fish and then cook the old dead one. The dining tip is this (animal activists, divert your eyes!) Smart diners tear off a fin from the live fish when presented for their inspection, and then use the missing fin as an ID to make sure their meal is the same fish. International dining tip number 325!

I recently returned from 8 days in China, in Shanghai and Shenzhen. It was my third trip there in the last year. China is a big priority for everyone who is serious about Mobile Entertainment, and it is complex and rapidly changing target.

As most people know, China is the home of the largest mobile phone user base on the planet. Trust me, even this guy asleep in his tricycle/pickup truck has a phone in his pocket (photo). Already, there are more mobile phone subscribers in China than there are men, women, kids, babies, and old folks and criminally insane in all the US put together (380 million by last count). This is about 28% penetration, so folks; we gotta a lot of growing still ahead. By the end of the decade or before, they will top 500 million subscribers.

The Chinese set up two state owned major operators, China Mobile (GSM) the big boy, and China Unicom (CDMA) the little brother. The goal on everyone's mind is to have a new 3G network polished and humming by the 2008 Olympics.

However, there is plenty of action in content sales and delivery via GPRS and BREW on Unicoms CDMA network. In the next post, I will talk more about what is being offered and the pricing and numbers.

It's important to stay in touch with the Japanese mobile entertainment industry. Conventional Wisdom says it is a look in the future of mobile multimedia in Europe, The Americas and greater Asia. That is only partly true. Japanese carriers have adopted a strategy of delivering content that is different from the path carriers like Verizon, Sprint, Orange and Vodafone are pursuing.

The Japanese model opens up access to their "official" service providers to hundreds of content owners/publishers. For a small country like Japan, that cuts the pie into very small slices for content owners. Other operators are not so generous with their portals, and tightly control who has access to their customers. This is good news for the companies that started early and built relationships, but not so good news for those who want to jump in now.

Obviously, there is still much to learn in Japan, and one of the best lessons is that there seem to be no end to the money to be earned from mobile content. In the mature Japanese market, some elite i-Mode sites are now boasting 5 million subscribers paying 500 Yen a month (about 5 dollars) do the math... THEN look to China... with a user base approaching 400 million consumers.

Here is a typical scene in a Tokyo subway, 3 of the 5 people are communicating or consuming some kind of media or information on their phone (no one is allowed to talk on the phone in the Tokyo subway), one is sleeping and the fifth is reading something called a NEWSPAPER, a user-terminated form of information distribution developed in the 18th century.

The original Mobile Lifestyle -- 24/7. What did she do before mobile phones? Photo taken with a Nokia 3230 at about 1 am.

Not all the phones in Japan are flip-phones. I likes these...

Here are some photos of unique phones I saw near Shinjuku Station. Note the lack of keypads.

Mobile entertainment growth and usage are greatly enhanced by a commuter culture in urban societies like Japan and the UK. Because USA workers generally drive themselves to work, it may develop in a different way from Europe and Asia.

Tokyo can lay claim as the birthplace of Mobile Entertainment culture, yet because of the specific cultural nature of Japanese consumerism, entertainment properties are difficult to import to and export from Japan. But the fact is that we in the west have to keep our eye on the trends in Japan in terms of Mobile Entertainment, because it is like a peek into the future for the rest of the world. I try to get to Tokyo a couple of times a year, and it always sparks new ideas. Photo from Starbucks, Ichegaya Station, Tokyo

Hi, I am Jim Robinson and this blog and podcast is about the Mobile Entertainment Industry, which if all goes according to plan, will including interviews with key mobile industry leaders, news, reviews of services and new multimedia handsets and other information and and tidbits for those in the mobile entertainment industry. In other words, this is about the business of movies, games and other entertainment on mobile phones. And by the way -- there are now over 1.5 BILLION of those little buggers out there, making this platform the biggest mass-medium in the world.

I am a consultant for the Mobile Entertainment Industry, and the founder of CinemaElectric, Inc., a Hollywood-based content provider specializing in "PocketCinema" for mobile phones. I started the company in 1999, built a distribution network spanning over 50 countries and later took the company public. I have recently left CinemaElectric and started a consulting business to help others exploit opportunities in this explosive new industry. For those that are interested, my website is JFRobinsonConsult.com .

Before that I was (am) an independent filmmaker, my last film was STILL BREATHING starring Brendan Fraser, Joanna Going, the late Lou Rawls, Ann Magnuson and Celeste Holm. For more on STILL BREATHING see the listing at IMDB.com STILL BREATHING ON IMDB and also on AMAZON.COM.