mobile media

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Mobile Video Usage Explodes in 2010

by Mike Vallez on December 21, 2010

A few weeks ago YouTube posted unbelievable statistics on their blog regarding the massive amount of video uploads that occur on a daily basis. But how are people consuming this massive amount of video content? Apparently, an ever increasing amount of video is begin watched using mobile devices. According to MeFeedia and Nielsen mobile video usage exploded in 2010 and shows no sign of slowing down. According to Nielsen research users using mobile devices to watch video has climbed upwards of 43% compared to the same time last year.

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MeFeedia’s research on mobile video consumption targeted the type of device being used to consume mobile video. Not surprisingly the iPhone leads the pack in mobile viewing, Android comes in second and iPad third. The iPhone and iPad account for roughly 52% of devices viewing mobile video. An interesting piece of information from MeFeedia’s research was mobile video engagement was 40% greater than PC/desktop video engagement.

mobile video and social media

What does all this mean? We are fast becoming a technologically mobile society, which will impact the way people obtain and consume information forever. These statistics are only the beginning and I would gather that in a few short years as mobile device technology increases the video consumption on mobile devices will continue to grow exponentially. Do you watch videos on your mobile device? If so how much, how often?

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Post image for 5 Reasons the Army is issuing iPhone and Android Smartphone’s to Troops?

5 Reasons the Army is issuing iPhone and Android Smartphone’s to Troops?

by Mike Vallez on December 19, 2010

The Army budget morphs that of individual law enforcement agencies, but thinking outside the box seems to be consistent on the battle field. The US Army is going to equip their field soldiers on the front lines with iPhones and or Android mobile device as soon as the Spring of 2011. I originally saw an article on www.digitaltrends.com and tracked the original information to the www.armytimes.com website. As a mobile device evangelist, enthusiast, I find the Army’s action to be an obvious technology progression of both physical mobile devices and web 2.0 technologies. Below are 5 reasons why the Army is issuing mobile devices to troops.

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1) Portability- Mobile devices are small enough to slip into a pants pocket, jacket pocket, ruck sack, duffle bag, etc.

2) Powerful- Smartphone’s have become mini laptops in the last year or so and upcoming generations of these devices will boast duo core processors, increased graphics, more HD video capture models and overall more power.

3) Real Time Intelligence- At war, smart phones would let soldiers view real-time intelligence and video from unmanned systems overhead. Drones would be able to provide intelligence to field personnel via smartphone. While this certainly already occurs with laptops, laptops are unreasonable to carry individually.

4) Real Time Maps- Track friends and enemies on dynamic maps, this could certainly be life saving.

5) Real Time Information- Soldiers will have the opportunity to use network searches, email, MMS, and get information real time while in critical situations, through individual mobile devices.

My first thought was, how are the soldiers going to access a network? Not to worry, the Army has already been working on this with basically a portable or mobile cell tower that would provide soldiers a mobile network in battlefield situations. There really is no argument why this is not a brilliant move by the Army to equip their troops with more information. Does law enforcement see the same benefit as the Army does from mobile devices? I think issuing police officers iPhone and or Android smartphone’s is also a no brainer, what do you think?

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mobile video

Is your organization ready for the mobile video explosion?

by Mike Vallez on November 13, 2010

A recent article by GoMo News, “Mobile video use explodes for YouTube” is very telling about the increase of mobile video consumption. Even more telling is a recent article by YouTube’s own blog, “Great Scott! Over 35 Hours of Video Uploaded Every Minute to YouTube.” It is rather apparent that we are in the midst of a video content creation explosion the likes that this world has never seen. This may sound dramatic, but lets look at some of the stats these two articles present.

-75% of YouTube users say mobile is their primary way to access YouTube
-35 hours of video uploaded a minute, equates to 2,100 hours of uploaded video in an hour
-50,400 hours of video uploaded daily to YouTube
-70% use YouTube’s mobile site a least once a day

The increased mobile use and the increase in upload of video content goes hand in hand and you can see that YouTube, the worlds largest video social networking site and second largest search engine continues to grow. Some reasons for the increased upload of videos are the increase in length of uploaded videos by YouTube, the continued technological advances in mobile handsets (iPhone, Droid X, etc) and portable video devices (Flip, Kodak, etc.) as well as the increased use of YouTube’s api allowing for upload of videos from other social networking sites, video games, and other online communities. But what does this mean for corporations, law enforcement, and people in general?

One of the biggest issues that corporations, law enforcement agencies, and people are going to have to come to grips with is that video will soon be on the web as fast as Tweets. Now this is already happening to a certain extent with more tech savvy social networkers, but prepare yourself for the masses to become instant reporters of police brutality, poor product performance, failed product performance, poor service and the list goes on. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube continue to change the way people consume information, but if you notice YouTube videos are shared on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, email, blogs, etc, which allows for continued growth of mobile video consumption and content creation.

Is your organization prepared to deal with the ramifications of the video world? I would like to hear from you if you are experiencing challenges from the new video age we are living in. mike@michaelvallez.com.

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mobile media

Android Bar Codes Make App Downloads/Purchases Seamless, Why Isn’t Apple Doing This?

by Mike Vallez on October 11, 2010

Being a “Fan Boy” of gadgets, mobile devices, and technology overall I was extremely impressed when I scanned an application into my Android “Droid X” smartphone the other day. This was by far one of the coolest things I have experienced since becoming a “technology geek.” The technology is a 2D bar code similar to the bar codes on most products we purchase at stores, but there is a twist. This bar codes is made for cell phones/smartphone cameras. There are several of these types of bar code formats as follows: 1) Semacode, QR Codes and Data Matrix (Wikipedia) which are optimized for cell phones. Here is how it works. I downloaded the CNET Scan and Shop onto my Droid X. Then I went to appbrain.com and selected an application, any one will do. You then take your scanner app open it up to the scan functionality and hold it up to your computer screen. The CNET app makes the sound like you hear at the supermarket during checkout and you are asked if you want to download the application. If it is a paid application you will have to go through the purchase process, but if not you tap install and the app is downloaded onto your device.

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This technology has been around for awhile and In fact I even saw this at Best Buy yesterday while walking down the main isle in the store. Best Buy was using the these bar codes for information on DVD’s and CD’s. In the not to distant future you will be using this at Walmart, Cosco, or any other store to scan your own retail items to determine the cost of those items. More than likely you will be purchasing products at your favorite stores and checking out on your smartphone before you know it. Use your imagination and you can quickly see how powerful smartphones will be as their cameras and overall functionality increase. MV

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new media and law enforcment

FaceBook Offers Law Enforcement Huge Communication Opportunity!

by Mike Vallez on July 29, 2010

Facebook continues to morph into the most massive social networking site known to man. As of a few days ago according to Facebook Statistics there are now over 500 million user accounts on this social networking monster. The amount of people on this site and the time people are participating (700 billion minutes monthly) on this site are phenomenal. Law enforcement as well as other business models have a huge opportunity to communicate with shareholders and constituents in this flourishing communication platform. A recent article by Muhammad Saleem on Mashable shows the number of Facebook users in the US and major US cities.

US Law enforcement agencies in particular have a huge opportunity to engage with their constituents. As you can see below New York has almost 4 million Facebook users Chicago, Los Angeles, and Houston have approximately half their populations using Facebook and Philadelphia has approximately 100% of their population using Facebook.

Based on my experience in police work I personally see a huge value add in engagement with Facebook users by law enforcement. Law enforcement agencies have the opportunity to communicate their mission, crime prevention information, crimes in progress, wanted person information and the like for free on Facebook. The startling numbers of users on Facebook in Philadelphia alone would cause me as a detective to use Facebook as a location to potentially cultivate leads on criminal cases. The Facebook numbers are growing, at the time Muhammad Saleem developed the above graphics for Mashasble the Facebook population was just over 400 million. The numbers above are surely higher now and show no sign of slowing down.

Law enforcement agencies need to do more than set up a Facebook fan page, they need to engage and grow a community using their Facebook fan page. Law enforcement has a huge opportunity to engage people where they spend time and right now in the US it appears almost half the population is spending large amounts of time on Facebook. MV

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