Voice or video – which platform would light the next fire in mobile domain?

World cup being not so far away, cricket rules the mind of most Indians – the coverage especially. None of the cricket fans care to miss even a moment of the game. It is not so impossible to understand why they wish 3G/WiMax was a reality now which would give them access to down live video streaming of matches on their mobile. (Business Line article) 

If the roll out of 3G/WiMax occurs in 2007 and all goes well, by 2008 we can look forward to applications which indulges our need to communicate and express our opinion . They could be: 

• Video chatting on mobile
• Video blogging from mobile 
• Video enabled interactive TV
• Disaster management
• Medical help

But, then like all good intentions, this too is dependent on actual implementation. Service cost, coverage area, ease of use, handset cost – all this will determine the popularity of these applications. I for one, am looking forward to using these services for relief management and making good education easily available to people sitting in remote corners of the country.