You might be able to catch your favorite news, a sports playoff, or episode of CSI and other shows on your cell phone very soon, if you happen to miss them on television at home.
That’s because cell phone carriers—in the wake of higher speed cell networks, more sophisticated and affordable phones, and the growing success of online gaming and photo services for cell phones—are developing ways to bring network television to the cell phone.
Nokia, for example, announced a mobile television pilot program for Finland March 9. And they and other such companies are probably banking on how popular television is in America to build a market for television-capable cell phones, according to In-Stat/MDR analyst Neil Strother. "By delivering these new video applications,” he told reporters, “carriers think they will be able to lower customer turnover and develop new revenue streams."
To make it happen, numerous sources like technology providers, content providers, and cell carriers will probably have to work together more closely, according to analysts like Park Associates. "Cellular carriers had been interested in offering video services for quite some time,” said Park analyst Kurt Scherf to reporters, “but it is only recently that the technology has evolved so they can deliver it."
Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Samsung, and Toshiba now have cell phones that include tuners able to receive television broadcasts, while Texas Instruments is developing an integrated microprocessor aimed at turning a cell phone into a digital television set, but analysts say a few hurdles yet to be cleared include more processing power than voice requires and a handset battery lasting at least an hour when showing a TV program.
Another hurdle: the cell phone screen, which still isn’t quite to the quality of a laptop computer, never mind a television set, according to NPD Group vice president Clint Wheelock, who said it’s hard to read news and sports updates in bottom-screen crawls on a cell phone.
And, still another hurdle: logistics, according to Scherf. If travelers can find lounge areas in airports or road transit terminals that feature television sets, or carry laptop computers as well as cell phones, he suggested, they might not want to watch a television show on the smaller display of a cell phone screen.
