AT&T's COO Randall Stephenson echoed many in the industry this week during his keynote here at CTIA in Orlando when he said, "Success does not come from technology, but from placing the user at the center of everything we do, because we are now in a user-generated industry. Make no mistake about it."
Building on the UGC-themed speech, Stephenson announced that AT&T's video share service will launch in 50 markets this summer, enabling subscribers to broadcast full color streaming video captured live from the phone's camera to another AT&T video share user. Stephenson noted that the service will launch as a one-to-one, peer-to-peer service, but will soon become a one-to-many, broadcast technology that will make use of the other two screens: PC and TV.
Stephenson's presentation concluded by addressing mobile TV critics: "Will consumers want to watch TV on their handset? Quite honestly I don't know." History, however, shows that industries wholly underestimate our future needs, he said. Consider off-based estimates for computing speeds, bandwidth and others: "I suspect we are underestimating how wireless data will be used." -Brian