Nokia: mobile TV success is a little harder than we thought

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Chris @ Apr 16th 2008 6:02AM

I agree with both Mark and Michael's comments. The very idea you should pay to watch TV on your phone is ridiculous. It just shows the whole western business mentality of 'Screw everyone to make money first, regardless of how little it costs us to put the service in'.

I often wonder what western mobile phone producers are thinking of when they do stuff like this. They sit there with with crappy, undersized screens with not a hint of VGA resolution in sight (It is 2008, now fellas, you can stop the pretence Japanese people haven't had these for the last year and a half), assume people will want to pay for TV content they can get at home for free (with a set top box or LCD/plasma TV) and wonder why people don't use it or like them as a company.

Japanese people got used to the idea long ago that any TV on your mobile, be it analogue in the old days or digital now, is free. They have phones with large, VGA resolution screens and the ability to record digital TV, watch it while surfing the net or writing mails. This has yet to happen in any other country.

The 3 network in Australia recently did a survey that concluded not many Australians were using mobile internet. Hmm. Wonder why? Most popular reason - overpriced. Oh really? What a surprise. A western mobile phone-related company overcharging people for a basic service that should come capped with a hugely better download limit in the firstplace. I mean, really.

It's not difficult to swallow your pride and just copy everything the Japanese have done in the past three or more years. Japanese phones rock, and yet the companies developing them only sell to a yearly market turnover of 50 million. With Nokia sitting as the world's largest phone manufacturer, with a nice 40 per cent or so in gross profits (literally), and a worldwide audience of billions, why is it they (and other guys) can't make a VGA screened flagship with digital TV for free and work with networks to offer better mobile internet deals while they're at it? Not difficult, guys.

Admittedly, there may be an issue with TV stations not ready to broadcast mobile digital content, but unless there's a technical thing i don't know about, shouldn't it be possible just to pick up regular digital signals? Even if not, again, this is something mobile carriers and TV networks need to work on.

Highly Ranked

Pdexter @ Apr 16th 2008 8:15AM

We could have had many quality screened phones already in 2007 as N80 had higher resolution screens than current ones, but competition didnt go there either so why not keep costs low thought if anything here's one good reason that iphone came even if it's not really threatening top players it gets them work for the positions they have currently as it has been easy example for Nokia just sail along while getting easy points from Moto not to say that last year wouldnt have been good year with devices.

And people should really stop that Japanese phones have it all. It's not a suprise that many of Japanes people use western mobiles as those phone interfaces are absolutely horrible some of the phones example change the button you need to push to get some where in every interface and cameras arent anyting out of this world compared to Nokia and Samsung camera phones.
But yes you are right that if there's something that they really need to get in their head is to get those high res big screens over here...damn it(why is it so hard SE? You are doing it in Japane why not here?)!

I dont personally watch mobile TV and biggest reason for it is screen! and secondly price. If i can get +3inch screen and get that service for ok price i'm all in for it.
Carriers had urge to get mobile TV to the main stream here in Finland for 1-2 year ago, but what i have seen it really havent taken off =)

Neutral

Mark @ Apr 16th 2008 1:42PM

I like Japanese cellphones, but they're OMG HUGE and I really would like to not have a brick in my pocket. Not to mention they usually get smartphones way after the rest of us.

I think the Japanese language needs a higher-resolution screen anyway, because Kanji is hard to decipher on a low-res screen. The fact that they have 3" displays is just gravy.

There have been a few Japanese cellphones adapted to GSM, but they usually don't work so well, and Sony has various patents in Japan that they don't use elsewhere, like the Jog Dial. The S710a was a hit for geeks, but it was really really big.

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