Maintaining Content Value

Our whole premise in this book so far has been to see how we can capture rich media
and then preserve the properties of the rich media as the product is moved into and
through a network for delivery to another subscriber’s device. There should be no need
to change the content. If the content is changed, it will be devalued. If we take a 30 frame
per second video stream and reduce it to 15 frames a second, it will be devalued. If we
take a 24-bit color depth image and reduce it to a 16-bit color depth image, it will be
devalued. If we take a CIF image and reduce it to a QCIF image, it will be devalued. If
we take wideband audio and reduce it to narrowband audio, it will be devalued.
There are two choices:
 You take content and adapt it (castrate it) so that it can be delivered and displayed
on a display-constrained device.
 You take content, leave it completely intact (preserve its value), and adapt the
radio and network bandwidth and handset hardware and software to ensure
the properties of the content are preserved.
WAP is all about delivering the first choice—putting a large filter between the content
and the consumer to try and hide the inadequacies of the radio layer, network, or
subscriber product platform. Unsurprisingly, the result is a deeply disappointing experience
for the user. Additionally, the idea of having thousands of devices hardware and
software form factors is really completely unworkable. The only way two dissimilar
devices can communicate is by going through an insupportably complex process of
device discovery.
Suppose, for example, that a user walks into a room with a Bluetooth-enabled 3G
cellular handset, and the handset decides to use Bluetooth to discover what other compatible
devices there are in the room. This involves a lengthy process of interrogation.
The Bluetooth-enabled photocopier in the corner is particularly anxious to tell the 3G
handset all about its latest hardware and software capability. The other devices in the
room don’t want to talk at all and refuse to be authenticated. The result is an inconsistent
user experience and, as we said earlier, an inconsistent user experience is invariably
perceived as a poor-quality user experience.
Pragmatically, the exchange of complex content and the preservation of rich media
product properties delivered consistently across a broad range of applications can and
will only be achieved when and if there is one completely dominant de facto standard
handset with a de facto standard hardware and software footprint. Whichever vendor
or vendor group achieves this will dominate next-generation network-added value.

There are two golden rules:
Do not destroy content value. If you are having to resize or reduce content
and as a result are reducing the value of the content, then you are destroying
network value.
Avoid device diversification. Thousands of different device hardware and software
form factors just isn’t going to work—either the hardware will fail to communicate
(different flavors of 3G phones failing to talk to each other) or the
software will fail to communicate (a Java/ActiveX conflict for example).
Experience to date reinforces the “don’t meddle with content” message.