notebooks outsold desktops, with an increase of almost 40% year-over-year. However even the laptop does not bring with it the advantages of the always with-you, always-connected cell phone — which is now much more than just a phone. Manufacturers would prefer you take a closer look at the features and applicability to your lifestyle and refer to it as a “mobile device” or “smart phone.” But really it’s a computer, darn it, with real operating systems (that are getting better with each release), real applications, and unimaginable amounts of fast, cheap mass storage.

via MediaPost Publications – Why Apple and Wal-Mart Are Poised To Rule The World Of Mobile Media – 01/05/2009.

The key point of this brief, is that there are three ways to get content like movies and TV programs onto mobile devices e.g. smart phones. These are : the streaming model or unicast, like 3G, where the content flows along with the communication signal, on a separate mobile network. This is an expensive way to deliver the content. Another model, like MediaFLO via Verizon and AT&T or DVB-H in Europe, provides content at a cheaper cost, but works like old school broadcast — no timeshifting nor content choices. Apple has figured out the sideload process — the user uploads content to the device aided by cheap memory in the device, and then can have “my programming” — and watch what he or she wants, when he or she wants it.

News models? How about an email or RSS, customized by the user, that queues up the news and features they want for the morning and afternoon commute and can sync with their mobile device with a click or two, and transfer content rapidly while they shower or shave? It would work for me, and lots of other commuters…

Phone companies and other companies that ought to be acting like common carriers, don’t seem to get this yet.