Policy making in the technology field is no easy task and policy makers can make decisions that are counter productive and / or consumer unfriendly. Mobile TV is a hallmark example of this can go astray.

The European Commission decided in 2008 that the future of TV services in Europe would be over DVB-H. Two years have gone by with little progress. Take France for example. Neither mobile phone operators nor broadcasters are willing to pick up the bill for a DVB-H network (DVB-H requires a new broadcasting network). As a consequence the media regulator, CSA, is hosting discussions with operators and broadcasters on how to move this market forwards. This is putting the horse before the cart. The regulator should not investigate how to put TV services onto portable phones, but how to facilitate (if needed) entertainment services on portable devices. Entertainment services encompass so much more than just TV broadcasts. Read more

The past few years have been rocky for Playstation, the former master of console gaming. Mr. Katuragi's, commonly referred to as the father of Playstation, vision for the Playstation 3 platform was grande, too grande in fact in our view the company lost focus on creating a great gaming platform first and foremost. The grande vision also led to a platform that was too expensive for the core audience (gamers) and difficult to get to grips with for developers.

Fast forward to 2010 and lots has changed, both from an organizational and a market point of view. Nintendo keeps Sony and Microsoft safely in the rear view mirror while at the same time Apple is encroaching step by step into casual gaming and entertainment. Internally Playstation has seen the departure of several key figures, such as Mr. Katuragi and top management roles. Sony has also restructured its business groups to be more aligned and to encourage cross business unit collaboration (Playstation is now part of the Network Products & Services, along with amongst VAIO PC group). We see these internal changes as positive, as Playstation has a range of challenges it might face in 2010 and beyond. Read more

Steve Jobs recently made strong comments about Adobe's Flash application framework, stating that the future is the upcoming next generation HTML specification HTML5. Let there be no doubt, at Premonvision we are firm supporters of open standards and industry standards. Without open standards the web as we know it today would not exist, and a range of disruptive services and business models would never seen the day light.

However, it is not often that Apple makes these types of comments, and it is rather unique to have one of the most proprietary and closed successful consumer technology companies praising open standards such as HTML5 while at the same time going after the technology that powers allegedly 75% of video content on the Internet. It may be a surprise that a company that invests significant resources in ensuring that the walled gardens around its products, applications and services remain intact champions open standards so publicly. After all, Mac OS can only be installed on hardware purchased from Apple and Apple restricts Itunes to only work with Apple products and Itunes store to mention a few examples. Read more

Across the globe a debate is raging that could shape the way the Internet works. This debate is pushed forwarded by governments in adherence of commercial interests of content owners. We are normally sceptics when policy makers drive policy change to suit the needs of specific commercial entities, especially when at the long term expense of citizens. Firstly, policy makers often struggle to understand technology, its implications and how technology markets actually work. Secondly, shaping policies based on the needs from commercial entities can have many unintended side effects. Thirdly, policy makers need to question whether their policy work is in the long term interests of their citizens. Governments and policy makers have their mandate from citizens not commercial entities. Read more