Will the iPhone play a role in eCommerce Video
In just a few weeks now, Apple will release their new 3G iPhone to the masses. Here is Silicon Valley, people are rumbling about it. I met two friends this week end who were delaying their phone replacements by a month of two to get an iPhone this time.
The iPhone is an important piece of the puzzle in the nascent eCommerce Video space. In case you haven’t heard already, there are a number of mobile startups who have pre-announced iPhone applications capable of streaming video content from their phones. Qik is one of them, but there are others. And that opens up a world of possibilities. Let’s imagine that:
(1) Site chat applications evolve to accept video streams from a Webcam, or a phone. This would enable retailers to engage in a more powerful and engaging experience with their customers.
(2) Brick and Mortar stores with “people on the ground” can connect live with buyers, show them products, answer their questions right from their desks or shops.
(3) Customer support staffs can ask their clients to show them exactly what their problem is while talking to them on the phone.
Most of these examples are futuristic, but if the bandwidth connection is good, if it is to use these video applications from an iPhone, and if the user experience is positive and profitable, it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine this will soon happen. At least for some retail segments to start.
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June 16th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Live streaming is very real. I think it will go completely mainstream when Data Plans do
Interesting post by Robert Scoble this week-end, this looks like a killer platform: http://www.kyte.com/solutions/pg/bloggers_small_publishers
-Guillaume
June 16th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
That’s interesting indeed - I also saw his post on Techcrunch. When you mention “Data Plan”, it reminded me of another issue - this threat from the ISPs to meter bandwidth (ATT, Comcast, etc). I wonder how that’s going to plan out too.
June 16th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Well that’s not completely unheard of. If you think about it all hosting providers do exactly the same thing: you pay for a certain amount of BW a month and noone complains.
I don’t think that would affect Mr John Q Taxpayer very much either, I bet those 5% users responsible for 46% BW usage are VERY heavy users. Realistically you and I would (will?) probably never notice the limit is there.
June 16th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
I agree - maybe we could even get to pay less. That’d be nice