Mobile multimedia refers to various types of content that are either accessed via portable devices or created using them. One of the areas that mobile multimedia has become ubiquitous is in smartphones that incorporate video and music playback capability, cameras, and wireless content streaming. Other dedicated devices, such as digital music players and personal digital assistants (PDAs), also provide access to multimedia. One major use of mobile multimedia is to download or stream content such as television shows, sports, or news reports while away from a home or office environment, but various devices also allow the creation of such content. Text, picture, and video messaging services are examples of multimedia that people create and share using mobile devices.
Multimedia is defined as content that consists of several different types of media. A simple example of multimedia is television, since it can include visual and audio elements. Other types of media include text, interactivity, and static images. These various types of media can be combined in many different ways and played back in a variety of environments, including mobile devices. When multimedia includes an element of interactivity, it is often referred to as rich media.
One of the most common ways that mobile multimedia is experienced and created is with smartphones. These mobile devices can combine a phone handset with a camera and what is essentially a small computer. Many of these phones are capable of running forms of rich media such as video games, accessing social media platforms, and displaying the same multimedia websites that can be accessed from any home computer. Some devices can even be used to stream television shows, sporting events, and other multimedia experiences.
It is often possible for users of smartphones and other similar devices to also create and share their own mobile multimedia. At one point text messaging was a single media experience, though advances in technology allowed this form of communication to expand in scope. Many mobile phones can take pictures and videos that can then be sent and shared along with text. In some circumstances, it is even possible to create videos using a smartphone or similar device and transfer them directly to video sharing sites on the Internet.
Other types of mobile multimedia devices exist as well. Many digital music players are also capable of playing back videos and other media. Small tablet computers and netbooks can also be considered to be mobile multimedia devices due to the wide range of content that can be experienced and created using these highly portable platforms. In many cases, these devices have built in cellular radios to download and upload multimedia content.