Prompt's TechBlog

The BBC reports that O2 is starting trials to allow mobile phone users to view TV broadcasts on their handsets. The trial will allow 400 participants in Oxford to receive 16 different channels, including all of the main terrestrial channels, on a Nokia 7710 multimedia smartphone. This is undoubtedly cool technology, and there will no doubt be some sort of market for it. However, we can't help wondering if Mobile TV will live up to the hype and have to question just how many people are going to want to watch that much TV on a mobile phone.

Even if users opt for the chunky, cumbersome multimedia phones that will be capable of displaying video streams at high enough quality to be viewable, the experience will still be extremely poor in comparison to a conventional TV. Digital music works well in the mobile market, because the physical and technical constraints of handsets do not adversely affect audio playback quality, whereas video quality is likely to remain very limited on all but the largest of mobile devices.

Nevertheless, we're not the nay-saying type, so we wait with baited breath for the day when we can watch Futurama on our handsets while waiting for the train home every night.