Mobile TV for the TiVo/YouTube/iPod generation
Disclaimer: For some reason, I happen to be 100% completely uninformed about Nokia’s plans related to mobile TV. Therefore, I think I can write my personal opinions about mobile TV quite openly, as I’m - bizarrely - completely incapable of leaking our trade secrets. Sometimes, it seems, ignorance is bliss.
It all started last Monday, with Nokia launching Nokia N77, the mobile TV enabled S60 device, with a punch line Live TV when you want it.
The S60 pundits, however, were a bit skeptical:
- Steve Litchfield from AAS: Do people REALLY want mobile TV?
- Symbian Guru a.k.a. Ricky Cadden: Do You Really WANT To Watch Mobile TV?
I think both of them raised valid points, but also partly missed some stuff that I find exciting in the mobile TV evolution path. I’ll respond briefly to the top-3 points in Steve’s critique against mobile TV:
1. You need your eyes, ears, hands, and attention for mobile TV, which makes you a very easy target for muggers
Well, I quite often check my emails and Google Reader RSS feeds, while listening to music with Nokia N73. Never been mugged. How is the situation different with video/TV?
2. Where on earth are customers going to watch?
As Krisse already commented, I’d assume that you could use it in the same places as mobile web browsing, games, or email. According to user studies, the most common place is, well, you know.
3. For better user experience (for you, or your kids) you should just rip your DVDs
I’d give this technology first a chance to prove itself, before making that judgement. With some imagination and innovative spirit, I think it could prove worthy.
So what do I think about mobile TV myself?
Basically, I agree with the commentators in that if you try to replicate the traditional TV experience directly to mobile context, you are bound to fail. Have you noticed that PVRs, YouTubes, video podcasts and bittorrents of the world are already disrupting the traditional TV? I think you can be pretty darn sure that these forces won’t be absent from the mobile TV ecosystem.
Let’s think a bit more open-mindedly for a second.
What would you think would happen if you cross-pollinated:
- mobile device (Nokia S60 device, of course)
- effective wireless broadcast technology called DVB-H
- PVR functionality (= personal video recorder)
- YouTube or video podcast kind of content
- live feedback channel
- TV-Out
I bet it would be something cool.
How do you see the future of mobile TV - or whatever you want to call it - yourself?
>>Well, I quite often check my emails and Google Reader RSS feeds, while listening to music with Nokia N73. Never been mugged. How is the situation different with video/TV?
With the above, you’re looking up and around you (and certainly aware) quite regularly, there’s no compelling reason to not deviate from the screen for every second in case you ‘miss something’.
>>As Krisse already commented, I’d assume that you could use it in the same places as mobile web browsing, games, or email. According to user studies, the most common place is, well, you know.
If DVB-H does indeed work when people are zooming around countries in trains and buses, then fair enough. I’m a little sceptical though. But - watching TV on the toilet? You have GOT to be kidding!
Steve
this is what i want: a mobile device capable of showing my video files on my computer, transmitted over internet. ftp would do just fine, so i’m mostly waiting for a device which would be mobile enough and still hold a large enough display. wlan is good enough, although not ideal.
I for one welcome our new MDTV-capable overlords! ;-P
DVB-H, T-DMB, ISDB-T etc. have all been designed specifically for mobile devices and should provide good service to moving devices. I have seen and used T-DMB phones in South Korea in a moving car (wasn’t driving of course!) and seen people watching them on the train (even on the underground!). I have no doubt that DVB-H and other MDTV standards are equally capable. So, yes, you can watch them on the train or in passenger seat of a car.
Personally that’s where I’d see myself using these things too. Especially on my commute to work. Right now, I listen to music or surf the web a bit on my phone - it would be nice to have the option of watching some TV too. Either live or recorded (at last year’s CeBit they were showing off the N92 and I was told it had PVR functionality - timed recordings and time-shifting - so I would expect that the N77 can do this too).
Interestingly though, MDTV trials have shown that people actually used it quite a lot at home! Presumably to avoid fighting over the TV-remote in the living room ;-P
Oh! I forgot to mention: DVB-H also has provision for broadcasting content other audio/video. This is sometimes referred to as data-casting and basically means operators have a big, fat bit-pipe to push content out to users.
For example, the “Readius” - that foldable screen gizmo - can use DVB-H to receive its data. So, DVB-H can in theory add more to a phone that just TV! Imagine having the S60 odcasts automatically pushed to your phone in the background using this mechanism
It’s not about mobile TV. It’s about *personal* TV. It’s about being able to choose what to watch and where and when, just like mobile phones are not really about mobility but the freedom to choose where and when to talk to your friends.
Mobile TV is all about curling up in your bed and watching the soap nobody else in your household bears to watch. Not about walking in the street and catching the latest news.
Technology does not matter.
Just my personal opinion
Janne, you can do that by picking up a $50 TV and putting it in your bedroom. You don’t need a $500 phone, the picture is better and it’s easier to use.
Why does Nokia waste so much time on garbage nobody wants like Mobile TV?
It should be trying to improve S60. Tommi, you should read the comments left here from disappointed Communicator users.
People are very let by with Nokia Software and it is already losing the company business.
> Tommi, you should read the comments left here
I will, thanks.
I think we need to try different things. I wouldn’t mind a TV in my handset. After all the chip doesn’t raise the price that much (as estimated 7 euros in 2008)
@PAUL:
I think Andrew O and all the complainers don’t realize that one should to use the external screen much more often now than in the previous models. The arguments wear thin when on realizes that.
Other than that the calender application is a bit restricted compared to the old model. But that is the common complaint about S60 PIM-suite.
In other areas the new model wins hands down.
Paul: in Korea it’s already in wide-spread use. Apparently a lot of people want mobile TV - or to be precise - a TV in their cell phone.
Elsewhere, regulation and standardization seem to be the key problems. Check out this EE times article on the subject.
I would not go as far as saying “garbage nobody wants”, when there is clear evidence that people do use it, if it is available.
Here’s a nice presentation by Jan Chipchase, entitled Ten Things Which You Didn’t Know About Mobile TV. It’s a study of people who actually use mobile TV.