Mobile TV, search engines in your pocket at forum
Microsoft CE Steve Ballmer was just one key player who took the stand, showing off applications for cellphones equipped with Windows Mobile software.
Visitors to the industry’s premier global gathering crowded round as Ballmer presented the merits of "Office Communicator Mobile", an application to be widely available by June or July.
Mainly of interest to the business world, the OCM is a tool to communicate with who you want, how you want – whether via e-mail, MSN Messenger, or voice over internet protocol, a technology that allows telephone calls using a cheap broadband Internet connection.
Ballmer also presented a version designed for the public, "Windows live mobile", that was generally similar to the business version, but also had an application that allowed for the possibility of consulting a search engine.
"Tests launched in France, Finland, Germany, Britain and Italy will soon conclude and the first to launch themselves commercially will doubtless be the Italians," predicted Peter MacAvock, executive director of Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB), a consortium of 270 telephony, television and information firms backing the technology.
DVB technology, which has been used in digital television for a decade via the DVB-T (Terrestrial) format, leapt to telephones in 2002 in the form of DVB-H (Handheld), and operators who have invested billions in the venture insist it will soon take off.
As a sign of things to come, around 30 stands hailing the technology’s capabilities were on hand in Barcelona, including some that offered live images from the Winter Olympics in Turin to draw visitors’ attention.
Offering a word of caution however was Gerard Pousset, marketing director with DIBcom, a French firm specialising in chips to receive TV broadcasts.
"Once there is a large number of users, the network risks getting saturated," Pousset said.
"To adapt television broadcasting to mobile telephony we had two problems: battery duration and the fact you can’t install too large an antenna."
DVB-H testing began last year in various European countries and "allowed us to know how much users would be willing to pay for the service," said MacAvock.
The answer was between eight and ten euros ($10 to $13) per month, a boost to operators, broadcasters and even sports federations given the prospect of extra revenues as many consumers would likely use the technology to keep up with the latest sports news.
Testing also showed, to the surprise of many, how often people would use the mobile at home as an extra TV screen when someone else was watching another channel.
One obstacle still to be cleared however is the issue of frequency allocation.
Meanwhile, Vodafone and Google announced that they would collaborate on an adapted version of the celebrated web browser for mobile services on Vodafone Live. Motorola said it would make more phones able to play songs in Microsoft’s Windows Media Audio format, having generally promoted units compatible with Apple’s iTunes software.
Elsewhere, the French telecoms equipment maker Alcatel said it intended to bolster its presence this year in emerging markets – a top priority for operators who see massive potential growth – while also targeting efforts to put live television into mobile phones.
The company’s mobile sector director general, Marc Rouanne, said that TV via your handset would prove to be a killer application and generate healthy revenues over the next few years.
Interactivity and dozens of channels were expected to attract consumers to the new technology.
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