Qik Splashes--but Not Unique

You'd think Qik had single-handled invented the concept of recording and streaming video from a cell phone, given the media gushing this week. But it just ain't so; there are other companies entrenched in the space, so clear your head of the Jedi mind trick.

Qik launched a public beta this week to the unwashed masses with a lot of new features; it had picked up a lot of early buzz due to high-profile bloggers using the service. Qik now supports 30 phones with the Symbian and Windows Mobile operating systems and can be used with AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint's high-speed networks. They've improved the back-end latency rate between streaming and putting video onto the Internet down between a half second and three seconds; there's also a bunch of social-media bells and a new embeddable video player with a built-in chat feature.

While Qik seems to be winning the propaganda war, Flixwagon, Kyte, and Livecast also have cell phone streaming offerings.  Flixwagon has a direct-to-YouTube widget to its credit while Kyte is playing the celeb card with 50 Cent and the Jonas Brothers; Kyte also has Nokia, Swisscom, and DoCoMo venture money in its pockets.

Livecast, the company formerly known as ComVu, supports Symbian and Windows Mobile phones, as well as a handful of UMPC products.  Financial backers include Intel Capital and the company is also a software development favorite of Microsoft.  Its technology secret sauce includes demonstrated operation over WiMAX networks and automatic embedding of GPS information into a video stream - a very attractive feature for both consumer and enterprise uses.  Livecast has already worked with Nokia and Reuters on one project for real-time news reporting video capture and filing.

For more:
- VentureBeat rah-rah on Qik's new features

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