Posts filed under Mobile TV Phones

Samsung are about to announce a brand new mobile TV chipset at CES 2007 that could completely revolutionize the mobile TV market by offering free mobile TV that’s completely indpendent from the network operators.

We already have a variety of mobile TV standards in place, which either use the existing mobile network to stream the TV data to the handset, or broadcast technology, which uses similar technology to the way in which terrestrial TV is broadcast.

However, both require the operators to upgrade their networks to support the standards (and ensure that a phone designed for one standard, say DVB-H, can’t work with a different standard, such as MediaFLO). Obviously this is an expensive outlay for the operators, but it also enables them to charge a premium for the benefit of mobile TV.

Sony Ericsson have been rather slow in jumping on the mobile TV bandwagon (at least outside of Japan, anyway). While Nokia, Samsung and LG all shout loudly about their mobile TV phones, with the Korean firms in particular seemingly releasing a new mobile TV phone every week, Sony Ericsson have been quietly assessing the market and keeping their cards very close to their chest.

That’s not to say they haven’t beeen working on it, however. According to Sony and Ericsson (note: not Sony Ericsson, but the two separate companies Sony and Ericsson), they will shortly be developing software for mobile and broadband TV, but no news yet on a mobile TV handset.

LG have announced the new LG KB1800 mobile TV phone. We’re all used to Korean mobile TV phones by now, and the LG KB1800 doesn’t offer anything new over the rest of the competition. In fact, it looks just like a standard mobile phone, and maybe that’s a real sign of the times – that an ordinary Korean phone now comes with TV built-in, no-one bats an eye-lid, and it looks no different from your standard run of the mill mobile phone!

It wasn’t that long ago we’d all have been amazed at TV on a phone (in fact, for most of us where mobile TV is still a dream rather than a reality, we still are!). Ah, how quickly we grow accustomed to the new mobile phone gizmos!

More details and pictures of the LG KB1800 mobile TV phone after the jump.

Just when you thought you’d seen all forms of mobile phone twistiness, Sharp throws a surprise witht he new Sharp 905SH mobile TV phone, which features a new Cycloid design. Looking like a normal clamshell when closed, the Sharp phone can spin its screen 90 degrees horizontally while closed, then flip up clamshell-style to reveal a large and glorious screen ready for mobile TV viewing.

More details and pictures of the Sharp 905SH Cycloid mobile TV phone after the jump.

This is the Motorola MOTOVIEW, Motorola’s first attempt at a mobile TV phone. Coming rather late to the party, the MOTOVIEW is a reasonable looking mobile TV phone with what can only be described as modest features. It supports the satellite-based S-DMB mobile TV standard, but a weak 1.3 megapixel camera, MP3 player, and er, that’s it!

More pictures and details of the Motorola MOTOVIEW mobile TV phone after the jump.

Pantech have announced the new Pantech IM-U140 mobile TV phone. An odd-looking phone this one, as the screen pops up at a 30 degree angle to let you view the TV picture more easily. While making the phone look undoubtedly cool and interesting (albeit in a geeky way), it also seems to make it very large!

More details and pictures of the Pantech IM-U140 mobile TV phone after the jump.

Good news for UK telly addicts: BBC One, ITV1 and E4 programmes will be broadcast to mobile TV phones by BT’s new BT Movio service, and all for just £5 a month.

The service will be broadcast via the DAB digital radio network, which, unlike similar 3G mobile TV services, is a broadcast technology, meaning there’s no limit to the number of devices accessing the TV programmes. DAB operates in a similar way to your TV signal in that it’s broadcast via a transmitter, and thus doesn’t use any of the mobile network’s precious bandwidth.

In contrast, 3G is limited by the available bandwdith, as it requires streaming the video as data over the existing 3G network.

Yet more delicious rumours, this time in the shape of new Sony Ericsson WEGA phones that may be coming in the next year or so. Despite mobile TV being all the rage amongst the top mobile manufacturers, Sony Ericsson have been slow to announce their plans, let alone release a mobile TV handset.

Samsung have announced the Samsung SCH-B470 – a mobile TV phone for the seriously addicted telly addict. Not content with just putting TV on a mobile phone, the SCH-B470 offers picture-in-picture – letting you see your TV programme on one side of the screen, whilst doing any of the million other things a Samsung phone will let you do on the other half.

Sharp have demonstrated the 905SH mobile TV phone at Expo Comm Wireless Japan 2006. Headed for Vodafone in Japan, the 905SH exploits Sharp’s world-leading screen technology to the full. With a 2.6inch screen that swivels horizontally for better TV viewing, the screen features a 16:9 aspect ratio and 160 degree viewing angle, enabling many people to view the screen’s display.

More details and pictures of the Sharp 905SH after the jump.