The creation of Open Handset Alliance (OHA) in 2007 shaped the way smartphones evolved more than any other business alliance shaped any other emerging technology. Not that there have been many alliances like the OHA, such cooperation is viewed with suspicion by many traditional business minds.
Thankfully VisualOn, a multimedia company who does clever things with codecs, has no such suspicion and has jumped wholeheartedly on board the good ship OHA. Their Media Engine, VOME, which utilizes OpenMAX interfaces that can optimize hardware as well as software, should improve the quality, speed and power consumption of the mobile media we consume on our handsets.
Of course we will have to wait for the next big release of Android, Gingerbread, before we will be able to reap the benefits of VisualOn’s technology, but faster, cleaner, cheaper streamed music and online TV is something we can now look forward to sometime soon.
