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New convergence: Mobiles with TV

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-895745,curpg-1.cms

[ FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2004 11:38:55 AM ]

Miniature mobile phones, which already double as cameras, Internet devices and music players, are poised to merge with the largest of home appliances, the television.


The cellphone industry is working to build phones able to receive high-definition TV (HDTV) signals over the air, even though HDTV has yet to make its way into most American living rooms.

Texas Instruments, the largest maker of computer chips for mobile phones, plans to announce on Thursday it is developing technology that will allow wireless handsets to receive hundreds of high-definition channels. The phones would not be marketed until 2007.

Although Sprint and AT&T Wireless currently offer a service that allows cellphone users to watch live streaming from more than a dozen television channels over the cellular networks, the picture delivery is very slow and not much like a real TV viewing experience.

The push into high-definition television reception by Texas Instruments and a handful of other chip makers could change all that. Qualcomm, the world’s second largest maker of chips for mobile phones, is also working on a chip to enable phones to receive digital television signals, the company said on Tuesday.

Both firms said the HDTV phones would be in widespread tests by 2006. Already, a telecommunications company in South Korea is testing a television phone in Seoul.

The new chips would receive digital signals that would display uninterrupted images while a user is moving. Texas Instruments and other chip makers envision consumers receiving television signals, not over the existing cellular network, but from a separate network, like a satellite television network.


“There’s no reason why, in three to four years, you won’t have 200 channels on your cellphone,” said Marc Cetto, a GM in the handset division of Texas Instruments.

He said he expected that the technology’s appeal would be “event driven,” attracting consumers who want to watch programming like sports and news.

Analysts and phone company executives said future programming might be similar to existing TV content, but might emphasise shows of shorter length.

But before consumers can carry true HDTV sets in their pockets, substantial technological challenges need to be overcome. The companies have to create phones with enough battery life that users will not have to choose between making calls and tuning into shows.

On the other hand, mobile phone makers and cellular carriers have successfully added new functions and features like colour screens to the ever-smaller gadgets — making the move into television less of a leap.

From a business standpoint, finding popular new uses is crucial to the growth of the cellphone business.

In the case of TV technology, there are a number of unanswered questions, like whether consumers would want to pay for programming as they do now for standard satellite TV or how much they would be asked to pay.

Cetto said he did not expect the actual handsets to cost much more than the current generation of phones.

Another question is whether consumers who have become accustomed to watching television on huge sets at home would be interested in watching shows on tiny screens.

Allen Leibovitch, a semiconductor analyst with IDC, a market research company, said the technology might actually be a dangerous distraction to people who use their mobile phones while driving.

The concept of miniature televisions is not new. Sony, with its Watchman, and other consumer electronics makers have for years sold portable televisions with small screens, but those devices have had very limited markets.

Rich Templeton, CEO of Texas Instruments, conceded the appeal of the tiny appliances has not been vast. But he said the phone-based television would be more widely used because most users would be carrying them anyway.

Cetto said TI was participating in tests in Berlin, Helsinki, Finland and Pittsburgh.

(NYT News Service)