Mobile TV not dead, just lazy? Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

According to the latest lot of consultants (via Mobile Europe) mobile TV isn't dead on arrival, it's just a bit lazy, and is now only two years away from taking off. According to the consultants, Mott MacDonald Schema,

...95 percent of British mobile users have not accessed mobile TV and those that do use it regularly, which is less than one percent, don’t access it more than once a month.

However they apparently believe that,

In a couple of years we could see the real take off of mobile TV and significant revenue streams.

All I can say is that if you believe that, I've got a very nice bridge you might be interested in..?

Closing the iTunes divide? Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

So just before the press conference yesterday, Ars Technica reported rumours that the iTunes divide might finally be closed. It seems that movies and TV episodes might be coming to the iTunes UK store real soon now,

Trusted sources inside the company have told Ars that Apple plans to introduce movies and TV shows to iTunes UK very soon—as in, a couple of weeks. Things are apparently all set up and ready to go, so it's just a matter of flipping the switch after the dull roar has died down about today's Apple event. - via Ars Technica

It can't be soon enough, I've been waiting for this since October 2005. Without those movies and TV episodes the Apple TV, while available in the UK, is a door stop not a functional product...

The question you have to ask yourself is, why this long?

Salvaging the mobile TV nightmare? Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

It now looks like the EU has decided to push DVB-H as a standard for mobile TV across Europe. This worked well for us with GSM, pushing the mobile networks ten or years ahead of the US market, but I'm not so sure its going to help increase the pathetically low uptake of mobile TV.

Of course in the UK we already have mobile TV thanks to Virgin mobile, but it has few subscribers, and is in any case based on the DAB not DVB-H standard as we're unlikely to be able to free up the frequencies required for DVB-H until digital switchover which isn't for a few years yet.

Despite industry disquiet it seems that the network operators still view mobile TV as the killer application for those expensive 3G licenses. I think they're in for a surprise. Like video calling which, despite being heavily push by the 3 network in the UK from the outset, was never going to be the killer application they so needed. Mobile TV is a dead duck, like MMS and WAP before that, both of which were going to be the killer applications for the 3G networks.

When are the operators going to understand that what people want is to make voice calls and send text messages. If there is one, the killer application for 3G is packet data, and "real" Internet access. One thing the success of the iPhone should show is that the mobile web, the cut-down version of the Internet currently offered to mobile users, is dead. Just like mobile TV, although the operators just haven't realised it yet...

Update: I think the handset manufacturers have the right idea, I'll throw my two penny's worth into the ring and predict that there will be a lot more mainstream adoption for GPS then there ever will for mobile TV.

Still a "no" to mobile TV? Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

Looks like the uptake of mobile TV services is still "pathetically" low. This still doesn't surprise me (via Pocket Picks), and I don't see why it seems to be surprising other people. Nothing to see here, move along...

A big "no" to mobile TV? Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

Apparently the new Virgin mobile TV service released last February isn't proving to be particularly popular, with less than 10,000 subscribers. This really doesn't surprise me, I've never been able to figure out why people would want TV on their mobile phone, despite the industry thinking it was the next killer application to drive traffic over their networks. Remember pocket TVs? I have to shamefully admit to owning one of these little devices sometime in the late 80's, and it was totally useless. While technology has changed a lot, I can't see twenty years having changed how humans behave all that much. Mobile TV isn't a killer application, unless what its supposed to kill is the networks.

Phones, lies and video tape... Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

Did anyone ever make much use out of MMS? How about WAP? Or the supposed killer application which was was going to drive the move to 3G, video calls? No thought not, me either...

The latest attempt by the mobile operators to rake back the vast amounts of money they paid out for the 3G licenses however is mobile TV. You have to ask yourself, why? This is almost as pointless as video calling, the only time I'd be at all interested in using this would be when I'm stuck on a train for several hours, but it's hard enough sending text messages, or trying to keep a voice call going, let alone get a UMTS connection stable enough to stream live TV to your handset.

However it looks like people in the industry are starting share my disquiet about possible adoption, let alone the shaky business model of the entire thing. I'm not even going to mention the possibility of a "real" video iPod turning up and totally cannibalising the market. Why stream live over a shaky UMTS connection when you can just download and then time shift your shows?