India's Spice unveils a mobile with a built-in optical drive

Photo: Tech Digest

In Barcelona, Tech Digest has had a look at Spice's Movie Phone, which is expected to go on sale in India this summer, with photos. Stuart Dredge says:

The phone has a 2.8-inch screen, and its headphone jackdoubles as a TV-Out port for connecting to a big-screen TV. But it'sthat optical drive that makes it stand out - you slot the tiny discsinto a tray that pops out from the back of the phone - much likeloading UMDs into a PSP.
You can fit a two-and-a-half hour film onto one of the discs - anda bit more if the compression is tweaked. The 40 films that'll beavailable at launch are mainly Bollywood movies, and Spice told methey're readying 1,000 more through deals with studios. The films willbe sold in mini DVD-like cases for the equivalent of $5.

The phone uses the Vmedia disc format (FAQ)with drives developed and manufactured by Panasonic Communications inJapan. The same drives are expected to appear in other phones and smalldevices, including home players. Longcheer Technology is doing ahandset for sale in China.

Note: dual layer 2GB discs and recordable drives are on the way.

Sure, you can put a movie on an SD card. However, small optical discscan ultimately be manufactured in large volumes for a few pence/centseach.

I've pasted a bit of the official press release below:
Spice says:

Another world first for Spice, The Movie Phone is an incrediblyexciting new product incorporating fantastic, incomparable, and as yetunseen, technology. Launched in partnership with Vmedia Research, Inc;Longcheer; Cinram; PacketVideo; Panasonic Communications Co., Ltd; thenew phone has been developed in response to increasing consumer demandfor mobile and converged entertainment and is being shown at MobileWorld Congress for the very first time. The Movie Phone will belaunched into India and South-East Asia in June 2008, with furtherplans underway for a global roll-out. Initially, 40 big titles will beavailable, with big plans in place for further titles. Spice hasalready partnered with various big entertainment houses like Eros,Shemaroo and T-series who are excited to develop content in v-mediadisc format for it to be available to mobile phone users across theglobe.

Compact, versatile and stylish, the Movie Phone combines high-endmobile phone functionality with top-of-the-range entertainment features- allowing the user to play movies on small discs, without compromisingon digital quality. The handset comes with a user-friendly interfaceand features:
A large 2.8" TFT screen with 262K colour display
Wireless music
TV out connection
Full movie viewing (up to 3.5 hours)
In addition, also included is a standard 3.5 mm stereo headset portand an audio-out port. The audio-out port also functions as a TV-outconnection transforming the Spice Movie Phone into a home entertainmentplayer with a single cable connection to any TV.

Dr B K Modi, Chairman of Spice Corp, said: "Spice Corp is delighted tobe the first to launch a disc-based movie phone. We believe the MoviePhone will become the most popular multimedia communications platformworldwide and may even change the way we all view movies, just as thei-pod changed the way we listen to music. Consumers are increasinglydemanding entertainment to be immersive, mobile, engaging andcollaborative. With this trend in mind, the phone is developed to meetthe needs of consumers seeking entertainment mobility, enabling them toplay their favourite video content whilst on the move without theeffort and technical requirements involved in downloading. Globalinterest in the Movie Phone has been phenomenal - with big media housesshowing a particular enthusiasm in the opportunity to develop originalcontent to a massive new audience of mobile users."

Steve Volk, CEO and founder of Vmedia Research, said: "Spice Mobile hascreated an innovative mobile phone that gives consumers an entirely newmobile entertainment experience. Vmedia transforms the mobile phoneinto a personal theatre so you can watch exactly what you want, on yourschedule, any place you happen to be. Vmedia discs are a new standardin mobile entertainment - full-length, new release movies with nocompromise in quality or ease of use."