Watch TV on your mobile?

Asians love their technology, especially the mobile phone. They love SMS, arguably more so than talking on the phone. Now, analysts are predicting that Asians will love watching TV on their mobile phones. According to U.K.-based Informa Telecoms & Media, there will be 68.4 million mobile TV users by 2010 in the Asia-Pacific, or nearly 55 percent of the world's total.

Analysts have been spot-on about SMS; Asians have led the world in SMS activity. Will the mobile TV prediction hold, too? The answer isn't as clear compared to SMS, because if you consider TV viewing, the screen size of television sets have increased over the years. The reverse is true with the mobile phone. Screens have shrunk, largely because it's a personal device and people prefer to have it light and small, easy to carry around.

And if we look at the iMode, NTT DoCoMo's runaway success is due to several factors, one of which is that the service is used in "niche time", such as waiting for the bus, the train, a friend. The usage patterns are completely different from that of Internet surfers on PCs.

So, as much as Asians love to watch their drama serials, reality TV and other infotainment shows, the mobile phone isn't a television set where several people can crowd into a living room or restaurant to enjoy the program. And the World Cup is still better watched with a group of people than alone.