Digital Home Thoughts: QUALCOMM and Microsoft Announce Agreement to Enable Windows Media Streaming Capabilities for Mobile Phones

"QUALCOMM has licensed Microsoft® Windows Media® technology and will integrate the Windows Media Audio and Video codecs into QUALCOMM's Qtv(TM) video decoder solution. Consumers will be able to play back and stream Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Windows Media Video (WMV) content on wireless devices integrated with QUALCOMM's Qtv solution. Support for this capability in the Qtv solution will be available in the first quarter of calendar 2005. "The goal of this agreement between Microsoft and QUALCOMM is that high-quality video on mobile phones will soon provide the streaming video experience consumers get with their high-speed wired connections at home," said John Stratton, vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless. "The agreement also encourages developers to deliver more powerful multimedia applications, driving continued market acceptance for wireless streaming audio and video content and providing consumers new digital entertainment experiences."

Well Apple and Motorola are working together and now Microsoft and Qualcomm are partnered up. I'm not sure video on wireless is that important right now, but if Qualcomm and Microsoft can get this working, they will be ahead of everyone else and Verizon and other CDMA providers will be able to offer services that GSM can only dream about. Jason posted about this on Smartphone Thoughts yesterday, but I though it should be here too...

Do you think we are ready for music and video on our phones in 2005? I can't imagine so.