Become a more effective seller online. Check out this guide to the 15 most common media formats found on cell phones and how you can market them.
Do you like deals?
More than likely you do and as a reseller of mobile phones,
you probably realize consumers like deals too.
They want to keep their budget under control. You need to tap into their fervor for deals by listing your items on eBay and other online auction sites.
But, don’t think just putting a listing out there is all you need. You might get a lot of inquires from your potential customers. That means you must be able to answer them.
One area you need to be knowledgeable with is the audio and video codecs cell phones employ. For those requiring a glossary of such terms, here is a comprehensive one:
Audio Codecs
MP3: While not the greatest quality audio format, it is the most popular. The ability to record audio on a cell phone commonly entails the conversion to MP3. Of course, you can also download tons of songs or similar audio files onto a phone in MP3 format.
WMA: Windows Media Audio (WMA) is a common audio compression format that is compatible with virtually all modern mobile phones.
FLAC – Many will install this free audio compression codec on their phone because it maintains complete copies of the original source without removing info from the audio stream.
AAC - Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) was supposed to replace MP3 in popularity and, well, it didn’t. Most cell phones don’t use it and it can be found mostly on Apple iTunes products.
ASF - Advanced Systems Format (ASF) is a Windows format compatible with all its media players so if a cell phone is using Windows Media Players can play these files.
RM – A Real Player format that is free. Obviously, you would need Real Player (also free) installed on the cell phone to play such files.
AMR - Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) is a codec designed to record the spoken voice on cell phones.
Video Codecs
MOV –Apple created this audio format extension and cell phone need Quick Time media player to play its files.
AVI – This is probably the most common video formats available and virtually any and all cell phones will play it.
3GP – A very low resolution video format used mainly with third generation GSM cell phones.
3G2 -- A very low resolution video format used mainly with third generation GSM cell phones.
RMVB -- RealMedia Variable Bitrate designed to record video images on a Real Player but it generally found on cell phones in Asian countries.
WMV -- Windows Media Video (WMV) works with all Windows Media Players including those installed on a cell phone.
MPEG – There are several different MPEG video formats and the most recent is MPEG – 4. This format can play on virtually any media player you may have on your cell phone.
M-JPEG – Does your cell phone capture digital video and still picture recordings? If so, it is probably capturing the images on M-JPEG format.
FLV – Flash video is commonly the name for those images downloaded from the internet and you can save them to your phone.
So, now that you have a glossary of all these video and audio codecs, what should you do? Read the list, reread the list, and improve your familiarity with them as best you can. Also, keep the list handy if you ever need to refer to it.
