AtomFilms aims at handhelds, cell phones
The company dedicated to delivering film shorts and animation online is launching a mobile initiative to bring entertainment to wireless phones and personal digital assistants.
AtomFilms, a company dedicated to delivering film shorts and animation online, today is launching a mobile initiative aimed at bringing its content to bored bus riders and people stuck in long lines.
The company has launched a new part of its Web site with content geared for personal digital assistants (PDA) such as PalmPilots. It also has signed a distribution deal with Microsoft aimed at the new Pocket PC.
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The trick, analysts say, is to take advantage of animation and video entertainment technologies to provide relatively short downloads. AtomFilms, with its library of cartoons and video shorts, is in the right place to do this, they say.
"The kind of content that fits in these places and what people want is very different than what people have thought," Salmi said. "It isn't going to be 'Seinfeld.' It isn't going to be 'American Beauty.'"
Even with these advantages, it's still early. Video over wireless connections probably won't be a real factor until a new generation of high-speed mobile phone networks hits the mass market. That's likely to start happening in Europe and Asia as soon as next year, and a little more slowly in the United States.
But AtomFilms is doing the right thing in establishing its brand early, according to analysts.
"It's a necessary move for a company like Atom," said Peter Clemente, vice president of consulting firm Cyber Dialogue. "Entertainment companies, even the large companies, need to establish their brand today in the narrowband world."