Cellphones today are a far cry from the chunky brick-like handsets we used to lug around back in the 90’s. Somewhat ironically, the smaller they get, the greater their feature sets seem to grow. Many of these mobile features are somewhat inane (remember Sprint’s completely un-annoying Push-to-Talk phones?), however it seems we’ve reached the tipping point at which things are getting very interesting. I talk specifically about mobile video.

UStream.tv and Qik (pronounced “quick”) have both caught my attention as heralds of a new age of video-on-the-go. Both are free services that allow you to capture mobile video via your smartphone camera, and broadcast it live to the internet for the consumption of the masses.

Not only can you capture and share your every waking moment with a single button press, but you can invite your viewers to comment on what they see via real-time text chat, that shows up right on your phone’s screen, as you’re broadcasting. And to think that Justin, (of Justin.tv fame), required all kinds of headgear for the same effect, just 2 years ago…

The possibilities of these mobile video services are, to me, endless, including:

• The song and movie parodies that we all know and love can be posted and shared in real time
• Some enterprising soul will generate thousands of views (not to mention rack up an impressive data usage bill) with their own mobile video equivalent of a Choose Your Own Adventure video series, with viewers calling the shots
• Breaking news reports end up hitting the internet faster than reporters can actually get there – leading the networks to consider crowdsourcing their on-the-ground news coverage

All of these possibilities are fun to consider, but in particular, I feel mobile video services such as these are like a PR and event marketer’s nirvana. Why post an edited video after the fact, when viewers can tune in from anywhere on Earth, and watch events unfold with a mere 5-second delay?

The only thing I think is missing is the ability to have these videos broadcast to viewers’ smartphones – at which point, we’re truly at the beginning of the golden age of mobile video, and the whole idea of Citizen Journalism will just have gone to the next level.