Mobile TV Roundup
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Some conflicting reports about the Mobile TV market. The first one states that there is no big demand for it and makes the case with an example of a teenager who was given Sprint's phone with mobile TV for show off. That never happened since the videos kept getting stuck because of jitter which of course is not show off able! The interesting point made by Rafat is that it generally happens with new technologies. People earlier had said the same thing about computers, internet and mobiles!The second one is an market research by IMS which says that there would be around 500 Million people watching TV on their mobiles by 2011 and DVB-H, the predominant standard in Europe, will be the most popular. The report makes some very good noises for mobile TV. Reports are generally like that, otherwise they cant justify the cost, can they? The catch there is that the operators should get their act together for that. They have to set up the value chain for content, high standards of service and attractive (usable!) handsets. That is easier said than done!
Another study goes a step forward and predicts a consolidation in the Mobile TV space and suggests a potential match up between Modeo and HiWire. The matchup is complimentary since Hiwire needs a network, and Modeo needs a more favorable spectrum allocation. No other cases are mentioned in the abstract though. MediaFLO figures as well in the report and it mentions QC's investment in the roll out (around $800 Million). The launch of MediaFLO is scheduled by the end of this year on Verizon's network. That should be very interesting to see.
And subsequent to SprintNextel's announcement of rolling out a mobile WiMAX network, MobiTV is backing WiMAX as its preferred technology. It had stated that earlier as well and now it would presumeably increase the R&D spending on WiMAX. The ripple effect already in progress. That would also rule out all chances of an aquisition of MobiTV by Qulacomm, which is right now pure speculation.
All in all, Mobile TV is sure one of the hottest and most hyped up technologies right now. Its a worthy sucessor to WiMAX some would say.
Technorati Tags: Mobile TV, SprintNextel, DVB-H, Modeo, HiWire, MediaFLO, Qualcomm, MobiTV, WiMAX
