The next time your cell phone rings, it might not be mom on the other end of the phone. Adult videos are now just a phone call away, with some help from porn providers. In fact, as much as $4 billion could be spent on cell phone porn next year alone.
Just how did cell phones become the newest outlet for porn?
Harvey Kaplan, director of operations for Xobile.com joined MSNBC's Rita Cosby on Wednesday's 'Live and Direct' to talk about the future of the industry.
To read an excerpt from their conversation, continue to the text below. To watch the video, click on the "Launch" button to the right.
RITA COSBY: Harvey, how did cell phones get to sort of be the latest technology here?
HARVEY KAPLAN, XOBILE.COM: It hasn't been the latest technology for our overseas partners in Japan, most of the Pac-Asian companies and Europe, for the last three to five years. It's just starting to make its way over here, because the networks are expanding to support video delivery to phones.
So as that network actually opens up and people are actually able to gain access to the Internet over their phones, the natural thing that people will first start to look for is adult content. And that's where we're more than happy at Xobile.com to provide it to them.
COSBY: Now, you have an agreement with Vivid entertainment. How many movies can customers access on their cell phones right now? And where do you see the future headed?
KAPLAN: Right now, on our site, we can actually get access to about 50,000 movies.
COSBY: Fifty thousand?
KAPLAN: And the marketplace -- 50,000 movies on our site right now. We have about 911 manufactures that have actively contributed over the last six years to AEBN, which is our parent company. And it was a natural progression for us, with all of that content, to start to port it over to handheld cell phones and PDAs. So the marketplace itself is growing.
COSBY: Absolutely, sounds like it's booming. Harvey, I understand you've got some gadgets with you.
KAPLAN: Yes, I do.
COSBY: Show us what you brought and what the utility is.
KAPLAN: OK. We've got several different gadgets with us. This first one, as most people may recognize, is the Sony PlayStation Portable. That's been one of our more popular devices to release content on.
And basically, just by selecting the video option and getting content to it, you can see that you've got a fairly large display to actually watch content on.
The next device that we actually have right here is the video iPod, which is the latest device that's actually come out for us that we've been able to get content down to. And we've managed to get about 32 hours worth of movies on these devices itself.
And I'm just going to key this up here, if you give me half a second, and we'll have it playing for you. As you can see, the quality and the clarity on there is tremendous.
So the folks that are actually searching for adult content right now on the web can download this stuff to their handheld cell phone, PDA, iPod, PSP, and carry it around with them. It's a personal portable and pedestrian device that'll go with you anywhere you want to go. ...
COSBY: Now, what do you say to folks, like companies like Cingular Wireless? They have some tools for parents to block access for kids so they can't get access to these kind of things. Of course, you don't want it in young people's hands. They're not ready for this.
Do you support that plan? And what kind of steps are you doing to make sure that the wrong people aren't looking at this material?
KAPLAN: Well, we absolutely do support any sort of parental controls that are in place for several reasons. I mean, obviously, in the adult industry we have a very low chargeback ratio. And if we get above .1 percent, we can no longer process credit card transactions.
So kids who are underage, sneaking mom and dad's credit card, the first time they see something on their bill, like AEBN's credit card, they'll go ahead and charge back, which will lose our standing and lose our ability to actually processing payments.
So we support anything that actually will inhibit underaged kids from getting access to our content. We have a filter on our site right now for credit cards so that no one can gain access to our content and watch it without purchasing.
... You have to be 18 years of age or older to have a credit card. So it's pretty obvious what the payment mechanism is of choice for us.
Watch 'Rita Cosby Live & Direct' each night at 9 p.m. ET on MSNBC.
