PacketVideo Software Ships With
Mitsubishi Palmtop
So now you have streaming video. What are you going to watch? Most likely it’s going to be music and news, according to a forecast released by DFC Intelligence.
Sports, film, general entertainment and Internet television will take second billing, according to the San Diego company, which forecasts through 2004.
The 275-page report takes an exhaustive look back at streaming video in the years 1998-2000, analyzing both technology and content.
The amount of video streamed over the Internet grew by more than 215 percent during 2000, according to the report, which counts more than 900 million total streams accessed.
Paul Palumbo is lead author of the report, titled “Interactive Broadcast Video: Streaming Video Market Analysis 1998-2004.” For more information, see (www. dbpwebcasttrack.com) or (www.dfcint.com).
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Watching The Phone: Audio/video playback software from San Diego’s PacketVideo Corp. will ship with Mitsubishi Electric’s Trium Mondo, a device that combines a cell phone with a palmtop organizer/computer.
The hybrid is fatter than a conventional cell phone , its faceplate is shaped more like a turtle or a bar of soap. It works in the GPRS/GSM standards (that’s general packet radio service, which is an outgrowth of global system for mobile communications).
So when can we get it? The units will be available in Europe by the end of March, said a Trium spokesman, adding “we are hoping that they will reach the U.S. by the summer.” In other PacketVideo news, the venture capital arm of Motorola, Inc. has made a multimillion-dollar equity investment in the private, local company. The exact amount was not disclosed.
SVI Reshuffles: Thomas Dorosewicz became CEO of San Diego-based SVI Holdings Inc. on Jan. 10. Dorosewicz will effectively become head of the company’s SVI Retail subsidiary, since the unit’s CEO, Mark Wulff, is leaving and the position will not be filled. Barry Schechter, who has been CEO and board chairman since the company’s inception, continues as chairman.
Dorosewicz was most recently president of ecVision, Inc., a San Jose maker of supply-chain technology.
Publicly held SVI also announced a private placement offering.
Its Jan. 8 announcement said it received $1.5 million from private investment partnerships managed by ICM Asset Management Inc. of Spokane, Wash. The investment group will receive common stock at 85 cents per share as well as warrants to purchase SVI stock at $1.50 per share. These warrants have a two-year term.
In addition, the investor group committed to buy an additional $500,000 of securities by Jan. 20 and has an option to purchase an additional $500,000 of securities at the same terms as the initial investment. The option must be executed by Feb. 20.
As of Jan. 12, the 85-cent share price was SVI’s 52-week low, reached most recently on Dec. 20. The stock closed Jan. 12 at $1.57.
SVI makes retail and e-commerce software as well as computer training software.
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Column Components: IslandData Inc. has moved its headquarters from a 7,000-square-foot facility to a 25,000-square-foot office in Carlsbad. The company’s ExpressResponse product provides automated responses to customers’ e-mailed inquiries. San Diego-based Sorrento Networks, Inc., a specialist in optical network products, has received a U.S. patent for its electronic photonic concentrator sub-rate multiplexing technology. The product wraps up to eight lower speed signals into a single wavelength. Sorrento is a subsidiary of San Diego-based Osicom Technologies, Inc. The Breeze Factor LLC has put out Release 2.2 of its extensible markup language (XML) data binding software, dubbed Breeze XML Studio. Breeze converts XML structure to Java classes in a process called data binding. Release 2.2 adds XML structure display, code generation and performance enhancements. The company has offices in Encinitas and Park City, Utah.
Graves’ column appears weekly. Send high-tech news to him at bgraves@sdbj.com.
