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YouTube Coming Soon To Cellphones

Posted by Zonk on from the finally-something-useful dept.

Krishna Dagli writes to mention a short New York Times article about a deal between Verizon and Google. YouTube will be coming to Verizon's VCast service. There's lots of catches: It's a $15/month fee, and you don't gain access to all of the content YouTube has to offer. Just the same, the article makes Google out to be thinking along these lines; YouTube may start showing up in many different places. From the article: "'Everybody carries a phone with them, but they may not have a computer,' said Steve Chen, chief technology officer and a co-founder of YouTube. People can 'take the phone out of their pocket while waiting for the bus' and watch a video, he added. Verizon Wireless and YouTube said the service would be available early next month. The companies would not discuss the financial terms of their deal but said Verizon would have the exclusive rights to distribute YouTube videos on mobile phones 'for a limited period of time.'"

2 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. Vcast by TrippTDF · · Score: 2, Informative

    I had this service for my phone about 18 months ago, and canceled it after a month... most videos took forever to start playing. In half an hour, you could maybe watch three or four 2 minute clips. The quality was OK for the phone, but all in all it was not the best viewing experience. Unless they have changed a lot in the last 18 months, I'm willing to bet this is going to be a big flop.

    I love Google, but it seems that Youtube is becoming a monkey on their back- they paid a ton of money for it, and now they don't know what to do with it. Cell phones? Not the type of thinking I'm used to seeing with Google, but I'll hold off on a final judgment when I see it.

  2. EVDO by fistfullast33l · · Score: 3, Informative

    The big question is whether or not you were in an EVDO area. If you were, and your phone had it enabled, then Verizon definitely would have a problem. If you weren't or your phone didn't support it, then you probably would notice a difference between then and now. I just bought a KRZR (stupid name, nice phone) for my upgrade and I got a month of the VCAST music service for free. You can definitely notice a difference between EVDO and non-EVDO.