Films On Your Phone

A new generation of phones have made watching movies on your mobile not only possible, but a very genuine reality come the end of the month.

Jan  6 2005

By the end of the month, mobile phone users could be watching Hollywood movies in their entirity on a new breed of mobile phones.

ROK, a company that specialises in mobile phone technology, is about to launch content-loaded multimedia chips that will allow phone users to watch everything from TV shows to music videos to films on their handsets.

Making use of the space that phone manufacturers have recently been adding to new phones, called MMC (Multi-Media Memory Card) slots, the software contained in the ROK Player chips will allow users to turn their mobiles sideways and watch movies in the widescreen format.

As Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman and CEO of ROK Entertainment Group, puts it: 'With ROK Player we have achieved a breakthrough. Finally users can view high quality moving images on their mobile phones using the full-screen of their handset, not just in letter-box format.'

The chips are pre-loaded with content so even when there is no network, programmes can still be enjoyed whenever and wherever the user wants, a fact that is sure to make bus and train journeys far more pleasurable experiences in the near future.

The company plans to sell the chips in high street shops and from their own website, www.rokplayer.com, and has already made deals for content with Sony BMG, Eagle Records, Sanctuary Records and Aardman Films, makers of 'Chicken Run', 'Creature Comforts' and the 'Wallace and Gromit' series.

Bruce Renny, Marketing Director for ROK, explained that several more deals were being done with other studios and that they would be announced in the next few weeks.

For now though, the chips will be launched at the end of the month with 20 films, 20 music albums, 10 comedy shows and 10 animations initially hitting the market.

Films will cost around 20% more than the average DVD because of the expense involved in producing them, but Renny added that ROK expect the price to drop as the chip's popularity grows.

So it seems that, as long as these small-screen films don't cause widespread eye-strain across the nation, the introduction of the ROK Player could make iPods, personal stereos, portable DVD players and the like practically obsolete before we know it.

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