Earlier this week, CNN presented a story about a gentleman from Dallas who was visiting his family in Connecticut (about 1500 miles away).  While he was on this trip, burglars broke into his Dallas home in an attempt to rob the place.  What the bad guys didn’t know was that this particular homeowner had installed webcams and motion detectors throughout the house.  He had also downloaded an app (priced at $4.99) onto his mobile device that provides him with remote access to his home security system.  This app contains a feature that can sound an alert when motion is detected in the house.  Luckily for this homeowner, he paid attention to the alert, remotely accessed his webcam through the mobile device, and saw the burglars in action.  The story has a happy ending, as he was able to call the police and the bad guys were captured.

We at Dialogic love stories like this.  Sure, we are happy when bad guys get caught, but we are also happy because these kinds of stories highlight the value of mobile apps (especially mobile video apps).  Our technology enables application developers to build these sorts of programs quickly and easily - we provide the telephony expertise, and our development partners provide the ideas.

But there’s another angle to this story.  If you watch the video from CNN that is linked above, you can see that the video quality captured through this mobile device is pretty darn good.  And with an application like this, video quality is critical.  Imagine calling the police from 1500 miles away and trying to describe a suspect if you can’t quite make out the picture in your device.  If you took a video with the mobile device that you carry right now, would the video be of high enough quality to allow you to identify the perpetrator of a crime?

A lot of the video apps available today on mobile devices are fun.  They’re cool.  They’re entertaining.  And sometimes they’re important.  But keep this in mind:  Whatever the application, a high-quality viewing experience is quickly becoming an essential feature of mobile video.