Korean electronics giant LG has signed an agreement with Google to develop a YouTube focused mobile phone.
LG said the model would allow users to upload, view and share video clips without the need to use a computer. The 3G phone will be offered first in Europe in the second half of this year.
Apple received a lot of attention earlier this year when they announced a deal with Google to deliver YouTube video natively onto the iPhone; in comparison the LG deal is far more interesting. Essentially users will be able to record videos on their mobile phones then upload them immediately to YouTube through a streamlined interface. Whilst many may argue that nothing can compare overall to the iPhone, Apple’s failure to launch a 3G version of the phone, or release it outside of the United States gives Apple’s competitors time to improve their offerings prior to the inevitable future worldwide release of the iPhone.
(via AFP)
I’m guessing that Apple’s announcement with YouTube will predict a video capturing enabled iPhone in the coming months, a model also sporting 3G support for the rest of the world. Given the Safari browser, and a video enabled camera (which will only be hampered by the embedded OSX), I can’t see why i’d buy the proposed LG for the sake of being a YouTube junkie, when i can wait and do it on the iPhone while i’m listening to iTunes at the same time i’m watching Pirates of the Carribean and also talking to my girlfriend behind my wifes back. Fuck, do i have enough time?
It will be interesting if someone is able to develop a mobile application thats device independant and website independant. i.e. the application should allow me to upload videos to any video sharing site (provided i key in the user password of my account on on the applicayion) and from any phone (Provided i have this application downloaded.) Then as and when required i can use my phone to send images to my video sharing account be it youtube or myspacetv or grouper.
This compares interestingly to http://kyte.tv, which just signed a major deal with Nokia, Techcrunch wrote about it
Pity that it’s LG that’s doing this. Every LG product I’ve bought has had major problems with it, and coupled with poor customer service, I won’t buy another LG product again.
Now if it were Nokia doing this, or even Moto, I’d be interested.
Well LG might come up with 3G 4G or may be 5G but its way far to talk about, right now i phone is ‘in’ and seems like quite an amazing piece of device, even if it is not 3G. It has already crossed its estimated sales figure.
Interesting post.
You can already do all this with the Nokia N95 quite easily. That goes for any video sharing site not just YouTube.
What makes this a more interesting post is that Google is dipping it’s toes into the consumer electronics market (even if it is indirectly through YouTube / LG).
…Intrigued as to where things head next.
Sounds like a cool idea. A YouTube mobile. There is endless content on that site, and a phone like this will just add more interesting content. Hopefully it means that we will see less videos of people sitting at their computers!
Yep, take a Nokia N95 and add Shozu and then upload to YouTube or other video site. The N95 is particularly good due to the quality of the video footage it shoots, but you could also use any other Shozu compatible phone.
True on the N95 side, but this offering will be delivered directly from YouTube itself, think of it more as a native solution as opposed to a 3rd party one.
This “Tubephone” will is going to be a very cool gadget!
)) I want it!
This is a funny story, because right now the YOUTUBE functionality of the iPhone is its biggest weakness.
YouTube iPhone PROBLEMS:
• The variety of YouTube videos transcoded for iPhone users is abyssmal
• The ‘featured’ videos are STALE
• The listing of the ‘most popular’ and ‘most viewed’ videos is coded in such a way that they apparently can never be supplanted by newer videos; the BIG 25 just have too many views and votes, so they just SIT THERE and never make room for other videos
Why doesn’t iphone do what the new LG phone will do? Because Apple is not about technology. Apple is about great user experiences. If they are not able (technologically) to deliver a great compelling experience, they will wait till they can. Just because the technology is there to do it, doesn’t mean they will.
theres 3 million ‘full-width screen pmp’ type things from 2 million diff chinese manufacturers flooded the market since about 2003. i begin to wonder why apple never had one of these out, did they want to save the full screen width so iPhone looked unique among their product?
its only a matter of time before those DAP freaks add phones to their gadgets. but i guess it will be like the iPod all over – just like consumers preferred the ipod even when all competitors played ogg/flac, had fm radios, cheaper prices, could record the radio or line in right to mp3 or ogg or wav.. people will still prefer the iphone even when competitors are 1/3 the price, dont require vendor lockin, play the Xvids that video is actually encoded into, or the existing flvs without special ‘featured vid’ transcoding…i wish i was apple – having sheepsumers at my beck and call could solve my financial problems fairly quickly..
one more thing – wheres my 700 mhz gPhone?
It’s probably just an LG mobile that will have access to http://m.youtube.com/ just like any other mobile phone that supports .3gp
The LG phone probably will not support Flash video, but it might be compatible with the H264 encodes that Google is making for Apple.
Once again this proves that content is king. Im sure Google will figure a way to make a profit from every clip of uploaded content.
I guess Google is looking for some $$$’s to license the YouTube brand name to recap some of the expense of the acquisition. This YouTube phone product is really inane.
What next, a Myspace phone? And then Facebook?
This really is a baby step toward convergence, but perhaps processors are just not up to the task yet. Multi-purpose, Mr. OEM, M-U-L-T-I, please pay attention.
I would have thought that the Iphone was the “youtube” phone – I don’t understand what is the big diff with the youtube videos on the phone.
don’t people already get intenet access on thier phone, don’t they already see tv shows on thier phone…..
I wonder – do they have time to actually call anyone with thier phones?
http://omadsense.com
I’m just tickled pink that all these manufacturers are focusing on surfing mobile. Maybe once they’re done focusing on pretty phones and one site surfing, they’ll conquer the global accessibility / speed issue.
.mobi sites have the right idea content-wise – scaled back graphics and more direct content help the user experience – knowing that when you look at a .mobi it will not take two years to load all screwy gives you some confidence when surfing mobile too.
i think a lot of this is about brand assoiciation. true, you can already get web video on mobile phones but most people dont use the multimedia functionality of their phones as is. this will change in the future. the iphone is a welcome indication of how things will be in the future but it is hampered by it limitations at the moment. mostly it’s lack of flash and 3g.
for more of what i think on this subject have a look at my blog..
http://www.itison.net/blog
we have a test unit. you can see it here
http://www.clip...-movil-youtube/