technology companies, including VP & GM levels with P&L responsibilities.Before establishing Samadhan Systems, Kabra was heading the Products Business Group of Aricent, Inc. (formerly known as Flextronics Software Systems). Earlier, Kabra was Vice President, Business Development, Asia-Pacific for one of the leading semiconductor companies, GlobespanVirata (later acquired by Conexant Inc.). Kabra is a BITS Pilani EEE graduate and a M.S. in Industrial Controls from ConcordiaUniversity, Montreal, Canada. He is also a Stanford- NUS alumnus for Executive MBA in International Business.

SURESH KABRA outlines the immense possibilities of the exciting mobile video messaging application and the technical challenges of making such an application user-friendly in an interview with PALLAB DUTTA…

On how more human emotion-centered, highly personalised and social engagement- based applications and user-generated unique content will drive the emergence of new applications for next-generation mobile phones and high-end cell phones:

Suresh Kabra: In this age of mass communication and exposure through the Web and mobile phones, everyone wants his/her identity to stand out. Dealing with impersonal gadgets, everyone wants to add that "personal touch" to their messages/emails so that theirunique personality is reflected. This is the driving force behind thousands of social networking applications being built today and made available - apart from on the Web- on the handset. The availability of "personalised" content and applications on mobile phones and other hand-held devices will take this experience to the next level because of the "impromptu"- and not to forget engaging and highly personalized - experience which only a mobile phone can offer. High-end mobiles have all the power and add-ons to allow customisation of content (camera, voice recording etc.) and many applications are already being developed in this direction. Samadhan's Mobi3D studio is working on one such application which will be launched in the market later in 2008.

On the demand for next-generation mobile video messaging and the context of their availability on futuristic smartphones, all-inone communication devices and high-end cell phones of the future:

Suresh Kabra: Mobile video messaging offers a radically different user experience compared to a text based SMS. As per industry reports, the user generated content is expected to increase tenfold to become a $5bn+ opportunity in the next 5 years with most of the focus shifting to mobile user-generated content. This growth will drive the next level of innovation in all smartphones and many formats of all-in-one devices. The mobile video messaging service already works through a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) download mechanism. For mass adoption, operators will have to resolve the MMS interoperability issues - and quickly at that to capitalise on emerging opportunities. This is happening as we speak. Once a seamless integration is achieved, mobile marketing will provide the next impetus for growth. Most of the smartphones today already support playback of mobile video messages in multiple formats and sharing them through the MMS route.

On the interface and intersection between proliferating social networking sites (both for the retail and enterprise audience) and the ubiquitous cell phones driving fast-paced adoption of such "personal touch" messaging applications:

Suresh Kabra: There will be a seamless integration between social networking sites and their availability on the mobiles. This is already happening in a lot of cases. Facebook Mobile Web is an example. Users will have complete freedom in accessing their social networks and other social media applications/ services using a PC or mobile. For obvious reasons, mobile access will dominate and this will further increase adoption of "mobile enabled" networking sites.

On how and why mobile video messaging can be the content pusher-puller for greater usage of next-generation mobile phones and even smartphones by a vast retail market:

Suresh Kabra: It is very simple market dynamic. Like a camera has become a de facto part of a mobile phone, it is a matter time before video capture and playback capabilities become an integral offering of higherend phones and other next-generation phones. As SMS- based greetings are replaced by video greetings, high- end cell phones' penetration will increase significantly. Everyone wants to see interesting content and when it becomes ubiquitous with mobile video messaging, no one would like to miss the opportunity to view due to limitations of handsets.

On the technical aspects/challenges of bringing such an application to bear and making it more user-friendly for consumers, commercial acceptance timeframes and time-to-market aspects:

Suresh Kabra: Samadhan's Mobi3D studio is working on an application which merges the world of 3D Animation and mobile video messaging. Basically, it allows users to create any fantasy, be the lead actor and allow the whole world to see these user-generated fantasies and stories, so to speak. Both aspects of the venture-3D animation and mobile messaging - have their technical challenges. On the animation side, the real challenge is visual art. What is made for large screens may not look good on a mobile screen. On the messaging side, the challenge is to stringent file size and plethora of formats which need to be supported for successful delivery, either as a WAP download or via MMS. Having said that, most of the operators today are offering some or other services based upon mobile videos and I expect larger market acceptance to happen by mid to late 2009.

On "personalising" the application to address the needs of various language markets and also regional markets:

Suresh Kabra: This would be in no way different to what needs to be done on the Internet -based approach. Depending upon your target segment, regional customisation will always happen in the mobile video content. This would be one of the USP of the content providers.

On the relevance of standards for the commercial acceptance of such an application - given the different form factors, screen sizes, UI interfaces and browser capabilities of so many types of phones:

Suresh Kabra: This is an important issue but not a major deterrent for the growth of the industry. OEMs will continue to offer differentiating features from model to model and I do not think it will be possible to standardize all aspects of a mobile handset. I think the bigger challenge is slow uptake of MMS services and its non-interoperability across networks.