It happened with the VCR, the DVD player and the Internet; now watch porn drive up sales of the picture-enabled cellphone.
James "JChris" Morrison has come up with a method to stream video – any video – directly to any cellphone that can deliver a color image, and depending on the quality of the phone, the video can look like anything from a series of still images to something approximating an actual movie.
"The 24/7 streaming is the first of its kind in the world," said Ann Petrie, Director of New Media for Wicked Pictures. "It's not downloadable clips; you don't have to sit there and wait 15 minutes for a 15-second clip."
The streaming will operate at anything from 1.5 to 7 frames per second (fps), and thanks to Morrison's deal with Wicked, subscribers will soon have access to a variety of Wicked's latest features.
"We came to Wicked originally through Ann Petrie," Morrison explained. "We selected Wicked as one of the premier adult content providers, a trusted source for adult content that we could rely upon that we wouldn't get in trouble with. They were kind enough to listen to what we had to say and kind enough to support us along the way as well rolled out our product."
AVN was able to view the system demonstrated on both a low-end and high-end "picture phone," and at the higher end, the results were astonishing, considering that the technology, which Morrison and his team invented, as well as the phone networks themselves, are still in their infancy.
"We focus on quality, and as the networks get better, so will the quality of our image," Morrison noted. "We can deliver as much as 7 frames per second, compared to regular television which can operate as high as 30, so what we're doing now is dependent on the characteristics of the carrier and also the handset that you're using."
Even with that caveat, the results were well worth watching. Tits bounced, butts swayed and babes moaned – and the company has taken the added steps of excising the credits and much of the dialog, so viewers can get right to the good stuff anywhere they can received a carrier signal.
"By plugging your headset in, you can sit anywhere you want and have a private, personal interaction with your cellphone," said Morrison. He suggested that airport lounges and waiting in rush-hour traffic may be the first big venues for the system.
And while the system is user-friendly, Wicked/XTC have also taken the added precaution of making the system password-protected so minors can't access parents' phones when the grown-ups are asleep.
However, downloading the software takes just 20 minutes, and with a credit card and couple of clicks of "yes" buttons, a subscriber can be watching his (or her) favorite Wicked stars any time of the day or night.
"These are the kind of applications that are going to drive data traffic and people using these type of services on a cellphone much like it did at the inception of the internet," Morrison predicted.
But that's not all. Wicked is also investing in a number of stand-alone kiosks where cellphone users can walk up and download new proprietary ringtones, "moantones," animation, screensavers and miniclips of Wicked women either by inserting a few dollars in the provided slot, or charging same to a credit card.
"The end user can come up, pick out a picture of a Wicked girl that he would like to have on his phone, touch the screen, touch in his phone number, and that image is automatically sent to his phone," Petrie explained.
"We look at this as whole new way to turn on your cellphone."
After the roll-out period, XTC will be offering up to 90 different channels, featuring product from many manufacturers, but at the AEE, it's Wicked that's got your number.
