Advertisement insertion during application launch in handheld, mobile display devices

1. A method of synchronized insertion of alternate multimedia content into a mobile handheld display device (MHDD) for display to a user of said MHDD, said MHDD enabled with processing capability for communication, storage, computation and display, comprising the steps of:

said MHDD downloading over a wireless network link alternate multimedia content and storing said alternate multimedia content in an alternate content buffer in said MHDD prior to downloading a program over said wireless network link to said MHDD;

receiving metadata over said wireless network link at said MHDD prior to downloading said program, said metadata comprising information on which particular alternate multimedia content of said downloaded alternate multimedia content to display on said MHDD during said downloading of said program;

said MHDD decrypting, decoding, and saving said metadata on said MHDD in an alternate content scheduler;

said MHDD initiating said downloading of said program to said MHDD;

responsive to said initiating said downloading, said MHDD receiving program streams of said program over said wireless network link;

responsive to said MHDD receiving said program streams, said MHDD decrypting, decoding, and storing said program streams on said MHDD in a program store till data in said program store is sufficient for rendering and display on said MHDD;

responsive to said initiating said downloading, a program download status register informing said alternate content scheduler of said initiating said downloading said program, wherein said program download status register monitors a start of said a program downloading on said MHDD;

responsive to said informing said alternate content scheduler, said alternate content scheduler selecting a particular alternate multimedia content of said downloaded alternate multimedia content and associated with said program, said selecting based on said metadata;

responsive to said selecting said particular alternate multimedia content, said alternate content scheduler loading an MHDD display buffer with said stored particular alternate multimedia content;

rendering and displaying said particular alternate multimedia content on said MHDD with a micro-splicer in response to instructions received by said micro-splicer from said alternate content scheduler;

subsequent to said initiating said downloading, said program download status register continuing to monitor said program store and detecting when said stored program streams on said program store are sufficient to render and display on said MHDD;

responsive to detecting that said stored program streams on said program store are sufficient to render and display, said program download status register informing said alternate content scheduler of said detection;

responsive to receiving said informing by said program download status register, said alternate content scheduler stopping said loading said particular alternate multimedia content into said MHDD display buffer;

subsequent to said stopping loading said particular alternate multimedia content into said MHDD display buffer, loading said stored program streams into said MHDD display buffer from said program store based on instructions from said scheduler; and

rendering and displaying said program streams on said MHDD from said MHDD display buffer with said micro-splicer;

such that said particular alternate multimedia content is inserted in a synchronized fashion into said MHDD and displayed during downloading of said program on said MHDD.

2. The method of claim 1 , said micro-splicer performing the step of:

initiating rendering and starting display of program content only after completion of rendering and display of a currently rendered and displayed alternate multimedia content.

3. A method to insert and display alternate content in a mobile handheld digital device (MHDD), said MHDD enabled with onboard processing capability for communication, storage, computation and display, in addition to program execution, comprising the steps of:

said MHDD initiating a program download over a wireless network;

said MHDD receiving alternate content metadata;

decrypting and decoding said received metadata, using the onboard processing power of the MHDD, and storing said decrypted and decoded metadata in an alternate content buffer linked to a scheduler;

responsive to said initiating said program download and while said program is being downloaded by said MHDD, a file download status monitor maintaining status information of said program download and providing said status information to said scheduler from a start of said program download;

wherein said program download comprises the steps of:

said MHDD receiving a program file from a mobile video provider over said wireless network; and

decrypting said program file and storing said decrypted program file in a content/program buffer;

responsive to said scheduler receiving said status information of said program download, said scheduler, based on said alternate content metadata, instructing a micro-splicer to load alternate content into a display buffer of the MHDD for display on a display of the MHDD;

displaying said alternate content in said display buffer on said MHDD display;

while said alternate content is displayed on said MHDD display, said file download status monitor continuing to maintain status information of said program download until detecting an end of said program download or detecting sufficient data in said content/program buffer;

said scheduler instructing said micro-splicer to stop loading said alternate content into said display buffer when it receives a download completion status from said file download status monitor;

once said alternate content display is complete, said micro-splicer loading said program into said display buffer and displaying said program on said MHDD display.