Will the smallest screen ever go big time?

So if content truly is king, why haven't more consumers embraced mobile TV and video? It's not as if the programming isn't there--between prime time network hits, sports and YouTube clips, there's more than enough viewing to go around. Context isn't the problem, either: Providers have consistently focused their efforts on delivering short, sharp bursts of entertainment tailored specifically for the mobile snacking paradigm.

For most subscribers, the sticking point remains the user experience. Consumers don't expect their handsets to compare to their home entertainment systems, but they do expect services that deliver a compelling, seamless viewing experience within the limitations of the mobile platform. According to the results of a study issued in late January by market research firm Strategy Analytics, a majority of current and prospective mobile TV subscribers in the U.S. and Europe cite audiovisual quality and reliable coverage as the medium's two must-have features.

"The user experience is absolutely critical," says David Kerr, vice president of Strategy Analytics' global wireless practice. "If you don't have quality content, users won't experiment, but if the user experience isn't there, they won't come back at all."

According to Matt Millar, director of mobile and devices for EMEA with software giant Adobe Systems, the biggest obstacle to a consistently immersive mobile video experience is the fragmentation of the segment as a whole. "Different devices support different codecs, so there's no standardization of mobile video," Millar says. "With so many different screen sizes and different implementations of standards, there are lots of ways to interpret things, and so many differences in the user interface. All in all, it's a poor experience--some services have been relatively successful, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue per month, but we're still seeing very small numbers of actual users and even smaller numbers of repeat users."

Millar cites the Internet as an example that mobile video solutions should emulate: "Web video only really took off when you could get a seamless experience," he says. "It's got to be an integrated part of what [the user's] doing." In turn, a small but growing percentage of video content providers and mobile software developers are now embracing Adobe's Flash Lite as an alternative to rival runtime engines. According to Adobe, Flash Lite 3, which was unveiled late last year, closely replicates the experience delivered by its Flash Player client runtime, which is installed on hundreds of millions of desktop PCs worldwide.

"From a mobile standpoint, Flash Lite allows you to develop and design within one application, and within an environment that is friendly to developers and designers alike," says Brian Burke, managing director with digital entertainment developer Smashing Ideas, which has been creating Flash-based media for the web and mobile platforms for over a decade. Burke points to Adobe's Device Central--a software tool including a searchable library of device profiles, a smart testing environment and device emulation features--as a critical element of the Flash Lite solution. "With Flash Lite, you have the ability to resolve device porting issues right there within the application. If you look at the overall mobile ecosystem, porting is a huge expense--you can't take porting out of equation, but Flash allows you to cut your expenses about 80 percent. We wouldn't be in the mobile business if not for Flash."

Cable television's Cartoon Network is one of Smashing Ideas' strategic partners. "We pride ourselves on being innovative--we love to seek out the next and newest thing," says Ross Cox, senior director of advanced platforms with Cartoon Network's New Media division. "Understanding the power of Flash and the innovation it offers, that's where we want to be."

The challenge facing Adobe is persuading U.S. mobile operators to embrace the Flash Lite platform with the same zeal as developers and content providers. "The big question is whether Flash Lite is ready for the mass market--can it compete head-to-head with Java and BREW?" Burke says. "Flash Lite is great for several things. It's a different, far more immersive experience than a static HTML page. If that kind of experience is done well in mobile, it will be done in Flash Lite. But it has a lot of catching up to do. It's been in development for years, but BREW and Java are the incumbents--a lot more examples of successful content are based on those technologies. Flash Lite is still in the nascent stages of becoming a mass-market, carrier-grade platform. But we're confident it will get there."