(Why is the cell phone a superior porno delivery platform?)

Telus, one of Canda’s three big telecommunication providers, recently announced that
they will offer pornography for sale directly to their cell phones
subscribers. Although individuals can already download porno using
their phone’s built in web browser, Telus is the first
telecommunications company in the USA or Canada to offer pornography
direct. According to Reuters, the mobile phone adult entertainment
market was worth $400-million as of 2004. As of 2006, Adult
entertainment overall is said to be a $56 billion industry worldwide.

When it comes to new media development and delivery technologies
pornography has always been a trailblazer. The first industry to widely
adopt analogue video, home video sales, DVDs, digital video recording,
online secure payment processing, online video delivery, file sharing
scrambling and DRM-protection, pornography has a pretty good track
record of picking winning technologies.

So have they hit another “money shot” with their move onto the super-small cell phone screen?

I’d say so.

As visual media technology has developed over the last 150 years it
has continually worked towards further privatizing the consumer’s
viewing experience. First there were plays, where both the actors and
audience where in large public groups. Movies came next, with the
actors being replaced by a projection screen and the audience
shrinking. This shrinkage continued to occur with the development of
the TV, video, and finally the Internet.

But even Internet delivery of video is not a truly private media
experience, as many homes share the computer among multiple family
members. Similar to home videos, the history of what videos you have
been watching on the Internet is only as hidden as your best hiding
spot.

Cell phones, on the other hand, are a more private media consumption
platform. Everyone in the family has their own phone, which they rarely
allow to leave their sight. Each family member usually has an
independent cell phone plan, and is therefore billed in secrecy.

As long as there is a public stigma attached to the viewing of
pornography, there will be incentive for the customer’s of pornography
to hide their tracks. Cell phone delivery of pornographic content, in
other words, is just the 21st century replacement for storing naughty
magazines between your mattresses.

National Post article discovered via Mark Evans Blog