Last week, Silicon Valley start-up Qik announced that their application will come pre-loaded on the new Nokia N97. First, and certainly least importantly, for anyone who read my last blog, I want the N97 badly. Without actually having seen the phone, it appears to have everything I am looking for in a mobile device, if not another human being. Too bad Nokia has no concept of how to sell to the US market and hasn’t partnered with a carrier, giving it an outrageous $700 price tag.  

My cell phone desires aside, the real news here is the movement toward real-time mobile video. Qik is a social networking application that allows users to stream videos in real-time to their friends and family. There are also additional applications and plug-ins that enable users to instantly upload videos to their Facebook page or blog. I have heard a lot about streaming mobile video lately, and it seems like the most valuable application of the technology is for citizen-journalism. As the current situation in Iran illustrates, there is quite a demand for on-the-ground reporting for quickly evolving stories. As newspapers and traditional media establishments decline and devote fewer resources to investigative reporting, the need for this kind of coverage will grow.  And as the popularity of Twitter has demonstrated, there appears to be a clamor for real-time access to people’s thoughts and deeds. Beyond the mundane, there are certainly situations that necessitate quickly alerting a large number of people to your status (natural disasters come to mind). In any case, getting buy-in from a major handset vendor is a huge first step for a company like Qik.

I am curious to see what this means from a larger communication perspective.  As mobile video streaming becomes more popular, the technological line between true real-time communication and one way content broadcast begins to blur. From an end-user perspective, however, there is a huge difference between having a real-time video call with someone, and getting an inane video update from a friend at a party. Browsing the videos on the Qik website may make you question the social value of giving people the ability to constantly broadcast what is going on in their lives.

Riveting Video from Poland

As with most emerging technology, it all comes down to user discretion. Much like Twitter, early adopters will most likely use mobile video applications for pretty much anything they can think of, possibly giving the technology a bad name. However, it seems to me that the trend is heading in the direction of a more content-rich, interactive communication experience, which is something we can all appreciate.

Tags: mobile video, Nokia N97, Qik

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