How important is the mobile video user experience?

In its low-cost version of Windows Phone, Microsoft has disabled high-definition (HD) video playback – a move which the company says is necessary for a smoother user experience.

We believe that the user experience is defined not only by smooth video playback, but also by the ability to view rich content. Bytemobile enables mobile network operators to dynamically balance such factors in real time in response to fluctuating network conditions and to differentiate their services based on subscriber usage and willingness to pay. The technology is called Adaptive Traffic Management.

-Anna Yong

Bookmark to:

It’s becoming evident that tablets will exert significant capacity impact on mobile data networks. According to AT&T, tablets will be connected to the mobile network most of the time: “The future [of tablets] is all connected," [Glenn] Lurie said in a MWC interview, where he dispelled the notion that most tablets sold today are Wi-Fi only.

Bytemobile’s latest Mobile Analytics Report shows that a tablet already generates 3x the data volume generated by a smartphone. In the future, with faster networks and larger devices such as tablets supporting higher-resolution videos, the data generated from a single video could increase by 5x.

Planning for the future, Verizon has predicted its "current spectrum holdings will not provide sufficient capacity to meet the growing demand for mobile broadband – 4G, in particular – by 2013 in some areas and by 2015 in many more."

All of these signs point to what Bytemobile customers already know – Smart Capacity™ is a necessary ingredient in mobile network profitability and growth. 

-Anna Yong

Bookmark to:

Light Reading recently published a Mobile Life Survey which captures data from 500 respondents (50% U.S., 17% C-Level Execs). The survey results highlight that “Mobile video is the No. 1 killer app when it comes to mobile content…Overall, of the 66 percent of smartphone owners that watch video, 43 percent watch it weekly, and 40 percent do monthly and 11% watch daily.“

-Anna Yong

Bookmark to:

The Wall Street Journal tested the new LTE version of the iPad last weekend and discovered that watching two hours of video on the device consumes one month of data.

WSJ posted a video that offers subscribers ways to manage data usage on an iPad. Unfortunately, all of them require subscribers to disable the “cool stuff on the iPad” – for example, use Wi-Fi whenever possible, turn off LTE, and download the video over Wi-Fi before watching it.

The conclusion: “Technology is amazing; pricing plans haven’t evolved.“

For additional insights, see this WSJ article, Video Speed Trap Lurks in New iPad, and these Bytemobile blog posts, Bytemobile Featured in The Wall Street Journal and Policy, Optimization and the User Experience.

With 50 video optimization deployments live or in progress, Bytemobile enables mobile operators to maximize the subscriber experience by managing excessive data usage, regardless of network type – LTE, 4G, 3G, 2.5G, etc. – and to profitably differentiate service plans based on subscriber usage.

-Anna Yong

Bookmark to: