Mobile TV - not dead, just not ready for primetime
Just because some technologies are just ahead of their time doesn't mean they're dead. Sure, companies behind them may fall but the technologies themselves sometimes are just waiting for the moment when consumer or businesses are ready to act or the computing power has finally caught up.
This time, it's mobile TV that 's being hung out to dry. A Mashable blogger has declared mobile TV dead, a knee-jerk reaction from a news report out of Germany that Mobile 3.o has been pushed aside. In one sense, this blogger is right. One of mobile TV's biggest obstacles is the subscription prices associated with it. Another is the experience itself, watching on a small screen, compromising bandwidth and battery life.
But dead? Not a chance.
What is television? That box (or screen) in the living room connected to a cable or satellite box? In the literal sense, sure. But television is defined by the content - a sitcom, a reality show, a medical drama, news, sports, whatever. And there's no reason that content providers won't come up with a way of delivering that content in a variety of forms at a variety of price points. I'm not a huge fan of paying more than what I should but that doesn't mean that I haven't. As an early adopter of technology, I have to decide whether the price is worth it to me.
Years ago, I was one of the first TiVo subscribers. I paid $500 for a TiVo box and $12.95 a month for the service (I think. It's been a while.) Was it worth it to me? Sure. But the mainstream wasn't ready for it and certainly wasn't willing to cough up that kind of money. TiVo the company has survived but continues to struggle as the cable and satellite companies have introduced their own DVR technologies. Those DVRs offer nothing near the superior experience that TiVo offers - but newbies who have never played with TiVo love their DVRs. They had no idea there was anything better and today, DVR has become a household acronym. TiVo now is looking at new ways to survive.
The definition of mobile television needs some broadening. It's not just moving the ABC lineup to the mobile phone for live streaming of "Lost" at the same time it's broadcast on regular television. Maybe the mobile environment involves shorter episodes of original programming developed for the device. And maybe there's a revenue stream out there that the mobile operators will define in the future to offset the subscriptions. And who says it has to be a cell phone screen? The PlayStation Portable has a bigger, Web-connected screen. So does the iPhone.
I'm going way back here - but the radio used to be a device that was a livig room appliance. But over time, transistor radios were developed and music/talk/news became portable. Who's to say there's not a better way to transition "television" into the mobile world? I think it could still happen. I'm not ready to declare mobile television dead.