Video will be the key driver of increased mobile broadband usage, and video performance will be the main factor in users’ choice of devices and networks in future. These expectations are shaping the strategy of the big players, pushing them towards new device formats such as tablets, optimized for high definition, widescreen and even 3D viewing. And the software houses know that creating an attractive video experience is all’important, as Google’s recent acquisition drive shows.
The search giant has added to last year’s purchase of On2 by snapping up digital broadcast specialist Episodic. The company delivers live and on-demand video to all kinds of devices, and could serve two key purposes for Google ‘ enhancing YouTube services, especially on mobile devices; and underpinning the push into IPTV set-top boxes. Last month, Intel and Sony supported a new ‘Google TV’ initiative to create an Android set-top box, the first step in a broader strategy to unify TV, internet and mobile content across all screens.
Google is also looking to build a fully blown content platform, with open programming interfaces and marketplace, for TV, to extend the integrated hardware/software model of Apple iTunes or Android Marketplace to other screens. Episodic could also contribute in this respect, since it already provides a full content and delivery platform, plus analytical software to track and measure viewers.
In a blog post, co-founders Noam Lovinsky and Matias Cudich wrote: “The Episodic team will join Google and continue its work to bring a great video experience to the web, mobile phones and IPTV devices …. From our earliest discussions with Google, it was clear that the teams shared this belief and together we obviously see huge potential in online video. Our product visions were also complementary and together we will continue to produce innovative video technology for our customers and their viewers.’ Episodic said it would not interrupt services to its customers, but would not accept any new accounts.
Google has made five acquisitions this year so far, all geared to broadening the range of applications it offers across the three screens via the browser and/or Android. The others were Microsoft Office sharing service DocVerse, photo-editing site Picnik, email specialist reMail, and social networking search firm Aardvark.
We may see some of Episodic’s expertise turning up in the forthcoming software development kit for Google TV, due in a few months’ time. Most importantly, though, Google will be looking to keep YouTube ahead of the video pack. The On2 purchase also had a dual aim ‘ one, enhancing YouTube and other video apps such as visual search; and two, making Android more video capable. With On2, Google gained the Hantro system for embedded video on mobile devices, plus the On2 TrueMobile System, which sends video over wireless networks using its VP7 codec. Its software compresses video on over two billion PCs and mobile products, and is used by companies such as Adobe, Nokia, Sun, Samsung and Sony.
Of course, the software firm often looks to do more than just enhance its products, and tries to influence standards and the whole direction of the web sector as well. So, along with the potential to use On2 to help Android leapfrog RIM and Apple in mobile video delivery, Google could also decide to open source the codecs and grasp the steering wheel in one of the most important trends in mobile web services, the delivery of rich media. It could position On2 against Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, Apple Quicktime and other rich media systems that are finding their way onto mobile devices and hoping to become de facto standards. It could even open source On2’s VP7 and VP8 video compression codecs as alternatives to the increasingly popular but closed H.264 codec.