According to a report in the Guardian, the Mobile TV service based on DAB-IP technology, which was launched by BT Movio and Virgin in the UK last October, has attracted less than 10,000 subscribers. Despite a major marketing campaign starring Pamela Anderson, and a price cut on Virgin's "Lobster" handset, the service has not taken off with UK subscribers.
Among the reasons attributed to this failure are the availability of a single handset which supports the service (a rather bulky Windows Mobile device designed by HTC), and the relatively limited content offering (only 5 TV channels).
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2 comments:
Dror,
Have you read this review ?
http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/reviews/review.phtml/1785/2809/lobster-700-tv-mobile-phone.phtml
It seems that it kept loosing the signal when on the move. Is that common ?
What is the age group Virgin are targeting ? Do teenagers spend that kind of money on a "Pocket PC" with a TV tuner ?
Itai Frenkel
Thanks, interesting article...
I assume there will be reception problems with early models, I also saw this on some MediaFLO and DVB-H handsets which I tested at CES. DVB-H may also suffer from GSM interference - see http://www.computeractive.co.uk/personal-computer-world/news/2173222/gsm-calls-mar-mobile-tv
As for the target age group, I believe they are trying to reach anyone that wants to view TV on the go. The decision to use Windows Mobile is not becuase they are targeting the business or professional segments - it is just because Microsoft and HTC offered Virgin and BT Movio a complete solutions with Microsoft codecs and DRM running on a Windows Mobile handset.
Dror.
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