A look at the growth of mobile TV worldwide

I’ve discussed the concept of mobile TV a lot of times in this blog and ever since Verizon and AT&T launched their mobile TV service, I see a lot of debates going on in the internet and people taking sides for or against mobile TV. Just so you know, this concept doesn’t start and end in the United States. It’s a global phenomenon and let me broaden the horizon for you.

Italy, which is considered one of the most developed mobile phone markets in Europe, is also the leader when it comes to mobile TV in Europe. There are a dozen channels available in mobile TV in Italy and there is a loyal user base of more than one million subscribers who pay 19 Euros every month.

In Switzerland, there is a 100-second news broadcast on mobile phones and it is very popular with mobile users there. There are more than 40,000 people who watch this TV news broadcast in their mobile phones every day. People here can get up to 20 channels in their mobile phones and they pay around 13 Swiss Francs every month.

Japan is the undisputed leader when it comes to mobile TV. There are around 20 million mobile phones in Japan which are equipped with TV receivers. South Korea, another market leader in Asia, has more than 8 million mobile phones equipped with TV receivers. India, with more than 250 million mobile users, has also shown a strong inclination for mobile TV and is considered a potential market in the near future. Thanks to these markets, mobile TV in Asia is growing rapidly and is miles ahead of the U.S. market.

This apart, countries like Britain, France, and Germany have plans to start mobile TV service this year.

Do you see the complete picture? There are people all over the world who pay money for mobile TV and it’s considered one of the most successful revenue-generating services for operators.

So, in my opinion, mobile TV will not remain a niche service in the U.S. for long. I think it’s a pretty useful service for people who are always on the move and it will find its takers eventually. Also, with mobile advertisers eyeing mobile TV, we could soon have free, ad-supported TV on our mobile phones, just like television.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Mobile TV.

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Google - story so far and the road ahead

Google is one of those things that most of us just can’t live without. At least, I know I can’t. It has become so indispensable in our lives that we find ourselves searching for something in Google every day. With everyone and their mother using Google as their default search engine, the popularity it enjoys is immense. It’s also the reason why Microsoft and Yahoo pale in comparison. So, when Google announced that it will focus on mobile phone market, a lot of people were surprised. I, for one, was surely surprised. I mean, why would a company which enjoys almost a monopoly in online search think of going into mobile phones? But apparently, Google knew what it was doing.

For long, Google has been enjoying the number one spot in online search. Yahoo and Microsoft were the contenders but ‘so close, yet so far’ was their case. But Google was wary of its competitors, especially Microsoft. Given Microsoft’s reputation to buy companies, a deal with Yahoo was almost on the cards. Steve Ballmer apparently told Yahoo board that together, they can be a great threat to the dominancy of Google and topple it easily. But the deal has not happened and Google, as of now, is still the number one. But for how long was the question. In order to sustain its position in the market, Google had to prove that it was not a ‘one product’ company. The solution came in the form of mobile web.

Why mobile web? It’s simple arithmetic. There are more than 3 billion mobile phones in the world. In just about a couple of years from now, there will be 4 billion mobile users in the world. In other words, there will be three mobile phones for every PC in this world. And to add to this, mobile camera, MMS, mobile internet, mobile video, mobile audio, and GPS – features which were considered luxury once – have become so common these days that we see these features in almost every other phone. What this means to advertisers around the world is that they have a new channel for advertising – the mobile phone.

Mobile advertising, as they say, is the next big thing and there’s billions to be made in the industry which is still in its nascent stage. We hardly go out without our mobile phones. We attend every call and read every text message we get. So, an advertisement in a mobile phone is sure to get noticed. Especially, if you can send targeted ads to people, it will have a bigger impact than traditional advertising. Add this to the fact that Google specializes in targeted advertising. The answer is simple – Google planned to enter the mobile advertising territory big time.

Out came Google Android. A platform which can probably make Google as big a name in the mobile web as it is in online search. But Google knows that this will not be a smooth ride. It will have to struggle considerably to cope with Yahoo, iPhones, Windows Live Mobiles, Blackberries, and more. But competition is something that brings the best out of everyone. Let’s just hope that this competition brings the best out of every big player out there in the market and ultimately benefits us – the end users.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Google, All things mobile phones.

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Eric Schmidt, mobile phone market, and a few musings

In one of his recent interviews, Eric Schmidt brought up a few very good, thought-provoking points. If you don’t know who he is, click here.

Eric said that mobile computing could be the most important idea which needs to be developed in future. This argument has been put forward by a lot of prominent people and we all know the bottom line – whatever people do with their PC, they should be able to do it with their mobile phone.

He also has a valid point to back up his argument. When the PC was introduced, no one imagined that it would go on to become such a big, powerful platform. Given the speed at which world is going mobile, the same phenomenon might happen with mobile phones too. The starting point of that phenomenon, he believes, will be Google Android. Google Android, the mobile operating system from Google, has created enormous buzz in the market and later this year, we can expect to see a number of mobile phone makers coming up with handsets based on Android.

However, the most important point that caught my attention is this – ‘ubiquity of location based data’ – a phrase used by Eric. Think of the information that could be most useful to you if you could get it on your mobile phone whenever you want – traffic information, flight and bus schedules and routes, weather updates, and maps. We will soon have all sorts of such information right on our mobile phone, whenever we want.

I believe that mobile advertising and mobile phone market in general could become a much bigger deal by giving the users what they want – like the aforementioned things – rather than ads that are not targeted and irrelevant.

PS: If you had no idea who Eric is and clicked the link above, do this.

1. Come out of the cave you’re living in.

2. Get a shave and a haircut.

3. Get used to us evolved humans and try to behave the way we do.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Mobile phone growth in the U.S. and Asia - A perspective

When it comes to mobile phone market, not many people know that the U.S. is not the market leader. Instead, Asia beats everyone left, right, and center. Asia has been the hub for mobile phones for quite some time now and the surprising fact is, Asia leads in not just the number of mobile phones or mobile connections, but also in the kind of mobile technology that is being used.

How about this for a sample? In Japan, you can play games and fast forward through MP3 tracks with just a flick of your finger, literally. Certain mobile phones in Japan come with built-in motion sensors which let you do this at your comfort. Also, you can point your mobile phones at a big commercial complex and your mobile phone will display information about the building like what’s in there, how to get to a particular shop in the building, and even the daily special in the restaurant. This facility is available in certain models of Sony Ericsson and DoCoMo.

China has gone one step ahead and has come up with a technology through which mobile users can get live broadcasts of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The best part is, you’ll not get streaming videos that are pretty slow. Here, the signals from China’s mobile TV will be transmitted straight to a UHF/VHF antenna which is inbuilt in the mobile phones, and you will be able to get 50 times the normal bandwidth, which, needless to say, will be very quick and easier to watch.

As of now, technologies such as this are almost unheard of in the U.S. However, a lot of experts believe that the 700 MHz auction will change things significantly in the U.S. They actually predict a third network apart from Cellular and Wi-Fi/WiMax, which will make mobile phone market in the U.S. a fast growing one. Soon, people in the U.S. will be able to switch their handsets at their wish without having to change the provider. Well; we’re all waiting for that day, aren’t we?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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uVuMobile and GoGo Mobile Media to take on Southeast Asian and Middle East mobile segment

uVuMobile, a well known mobility software and services company, has formed a strategic alliance with GoGo Mobile Media, a famous video and audio content distribution company, in a move to grab a share of the rapidly burgeoning mobile advertising industry in Southeast Asia, particularly India, and the Middle East.

Now, this might have been yet another M&A news in the mobile advertising industry, had it not been for the fact that the parties involved are interested not in the western market, but in the eastern market. For those of you that don’t know, India is considered the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world with over 220 million users. And the number is increasing by the day rapidly. Similarly, other countries in Southeast Asia and the Middle East are also fast catching up with the mobile phone revolution, thereby making it a ripe market for mobile content distributors and advertisers.

Also, Asians use premium services like SMS, MMS, mobile internet, mobile video, and mobile email features a lot more extensively than their western counterparts. So, it will be a hell lot easier for the advertisers to reach out to customers in say India, than the ones in the U.S., thanks to the different options of mobile advertising they have (read text messages, banner ads, video ads, mobile web ads) in the Asian market. One thing’s for sure. The U.S. needs to catch up a lot when it comes to mobile usage.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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