According to Sony Ericsson president Bert Nordberg, the company rejected the opportunity to build the Google Nexus One, saying that it did not want to gain a reputation as a subcontractor. After SE turned down the offer, HTC gladly took the chance to manufacture the smartphone.
Although sales of the Nexus One have been rather small by most standards, HTC gained tons of publicity from the partnership, with their CEO given a few minutes to talk at the much-hyped Nexus One launch last month about his company and the brand itself.
Sony Ericsson has seen over $1 billion in losses over the past year, and continues to lose market share to rivals, leading to over 2000 layoffs.
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According to unnamed entertainment executives talking to CNET, YouTube may be on the verge of streaming full-length major motion films on a new service.
The service would be very similar to the popular Hulu site and would let users watch ad-supported movies in a widescreen format. CNET is under the impression that YouTube is so far into negotiations that a formal launch could happen as soon as January.
The deal would mark a major turnaround for YouTube which has so far mostly refused to host video longer than a few minutes.
The service will most likely only be available via a PC web browser as most web video services insert ads using Flash which most video-enabled devices cannot load.
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CinemaNow has introduced a new mobile feature for its service that will allow any web-enabled mobile device to download digital movies.
There is a catch however. You cant play the movies on your phone, the service only allows you to download the movies using your phone, to a PC at home, as long as the PC has the CinemaNow Media Manager installed and running. According to the service’s FAQ section, “On CinemaNow Mobile you can browse the same CinemaNow video selection, watch trailers, make purchases and have the video download at any of your PC’s.”
If you don’t really get the point of the service, CinemaNow tries to explain it better:
“Let’s say you’re at the bus station or at a friend’s house, thinking about what to watch tonight when you get back home. Once you bought and sent your video to your home PC via your phone, it will be there for you waiting to be watched when you get back.”
It is an interesting idea if you want to remotely download a film, but those who use CinemaNow know that a streamed movie starts very quickly so this service seems like it will only save a few minutes at best.
More interestingly however, is that CinemaNow’s chief operating officer David Cook says movies that can be played on phones is coming sometime in 2009, with more details to follow.
