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The phone with "high definition" and MySpace - reality, or hype?

"Remember the first time you saw HD?" says the Helio web site, showing a video phone. "That's what we're talking about." The reality? - quarter VGA, 240 by 320 resolution, 260K colours. Can Earthlink founder Sky Dayton really convince America to blog from the mobile?

Like most mobile boosters, Dayton is counting on finding a killer application for mobile Internet, and thinks he's found it: "He targets the under-30 crowd with superslick phones that surf the Web. They give users the ability to buy games and videos and share them with friends, including uploading them to a MySpace page."

Dayton has scored big - in PR terms. He's got a profile up on Business Week which analyses his new wireless obsession with virtual mobile net Helio and WiFi hotspot pioneer  Boingo. It's not all good news because the BW analysis isn't really enthusiastic:

Dayton says Helio is modelled after a wildly popular service that SK Telecom runs in South Korea. 'Every kid I saw over there had one of their phones like jewelry hanging from their wrists,' he says.

The report focuses on the undoubted financial clout that Dayton has these days, with blue-chip backers:

These are no seat-of-the pants ventures, like Dayton's credit card-funded Earthlink launch. His well-heeled Boingo investors include Sprint PCS and Mitsui. Five-year-old Boingo is nabbing hotspot deals, such as one in May to buy the operator of wireless services in 12 airports that include JFK and LaGuardia in New York. Meanwhile, Helio's co-owners, Earthlink and South Korean communications giant SK Telecom, have agreed to pump $440 million into its launch.

Trouble is: these are backers with the same desperate need to find a killer app for mobile data. Mobile phone companies have all sold their investors the same story: "Stay with us, because voice is just the tip of a huge revenue iceberg which we'll own with high-speed mobile data."

They may be right, and Dayton may be right; but we're still waiting for the cold water, never mind the ice. And if he can really compare a quarter VGA display to high definition TV, it's thin ice.