New Video Service Debuts for Palm PDA Phones

In between taking those important phone calls, one Silicon Valley-based startup is hoping you’ll want to download the latest Christina Aguilera or Eminem music video on your Palm-powered PDA phone.

San Jose, Calif.-based Thin Multimedia Friday said it has launched a new mobile video “Download & Store” service with the help of South Korea-based SK Telecom specifically designed for their Palm PDA-based wireless network.

Subscribers will be able to tap into content such as movie trailers, music videos, and animation. At the outset, SK Telecom will offer the content and service for free with gradual plans to develop fee-based services around premium contents.

SK Telecom plans to launch a marketing campaign in August 2003 to advertise these services.

The service will initially use Samsung’s MITs M330, running Palm 3.5. Eventually, SK Telecom said it plans on expanding its product and service offerings using Thin Multimedia’s services to JTEL’s Cellvic-based PDAs, Linux-based PDAs, and the Pocket PC 2000 series. Thin says its video compression and transmission is three to five times better than other codecs available on the Palm platform for commercial service. The company said its technology is available for mobile devices over 2G and 2.5G networks.

In addition to Samsung, the Palm operating system is licensed through Palm’s PalmSource software division to other PDA-phone makers like Handspring , Group Sense PDA Limited, Kyocera Wireless, Legend Group Limited and even Palm itself.

The Thin/SK deal is certainly a boon for Santa Clara, Calif.-based Palm , as it is close to acquiring Handspring and separating from PalmSource.

SK Telecom will initially offer the service. However, Thin Multimedia said additional features such as ‘Download & Play’ and ‘Live Streaming’ will be added.

“Thin Multimedia’s continued success in offering new and innovative wireless video applications across multiple platforms is a validation of Thin Multimedia’s technology,” company president Dale Park said in a statement. “We look forward to providing ongoing value added services to our customers in the forefront of the wireless industry.”