14 DAY TRIAL // A recent report from Gartner states that only five percent of all Europeans are interested in watching TV on their mobile phones. There are high chances that things will change once the telecom market adapts its offer to the users' demands.
Mobile TV looks like one of the most evolved technologies that handsets have managed to pack throughout the years. There are already some DivX certified such devices out there, such as Samsung SGH-F508 and Samsung SGH-F500 too. It sounded like a good start for mobile TV, especially as several researches at that time showed great perspective for this technology.
The result of Gartner's research proved to be highly surprising, as it showed extremely low popularity for it at a large scale. About 5 percent of Europeans and 20 percent of Asians expressed interest in watching television or video on their cellphones in the next 12 months.
Many Asian countries don't have to worry about spectrum availability, which made it possible for commercial DVB-H broadcasts to have already started in India and Vietnam. Moreover, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia are also making preparations to introduce their own networks this year. The higher interest rate for mobile TV in Asia could also be put on account of the fact that this technology is already used here. In Europe, only three countries have started commercial networks.
There are high chances that these figures reflect only the state of the current market, but things may change once the service starts being used at a larger scale. Once people have the chance of using this technology, there is a great possibility for them to find personal advantages in it and appreciate it more.
The problem with mobile TV, Gartner observes, is that cellulars are too small to provide a satisfying experience. Still, this technology is not suitable for larger devices either, as it takes away from their mobility and makes the old fashioned TV set look like the best solution, in the end.