What is the future of MobileTV?

I have been asking myself a couple of questions lately:

• When introducing a new service or product, what are the main success factors?


• How is MobileTV fulfilling these success factors?


• How could the future of MobileTV be look like?

I got some interesting insights and learned a few lessons about success factors when listening to Yanke Group's CEO Emily Green at a luncheon in Kista hosted by Mobile & Broadband Showcase at Kista Science Tower on April 23rd. I will here shortly refer to these success factors and see how they applie to MobileTV. You can read a reference from Emily here: http://www.yankeegroup.com/Sweden.do



First, let's start with Yanke Group's definition about key success factors:

• Does it meet a basic human need?


• Does it liberate the user?


• Does it remove, not add friction?


• Can the user sell the story?

You can rate a new service on each of these attributes from 1-3 and then sum it up. If it reaches at least 10 then it will probably become a success.


As you can see the main message is if it meets and relives people in their daily life and if the service is simple to explain to others. Then you will create satisfied users with a viral effect that will drag in new users.



So how does this applies to MobileTV? Well, there are at least two forms of MobileTV that I'm aware of:

• Terrestrial which is similar to today's TV which is broad casted. The main standards are DVB-T (used today for normal TV) and DVB-H (which is DVB-T adjusted for the handheld, backwards compatible). This technology uses separate infrastructure as compared to the wireless network.


• Streamed which is stream over a wireless broadband connection. Allows multiparty communication and interaction between end-users and content provider. Personalization of contents like VoD, Podcasts, advertising is possible.

Basically both technologies sends moving images to a hand held in real time, however the user experience is like traditional TV in the first case but on a very small screen and personalized and unique in the second case. Let's have a look at the success factors now to compare these two different MobileTV technologies and see if any of them may succeed.



Terrestial

• Does it meet a basic human need? Yes. Points: 3


• Does it liberate the user? Well, kind-of. Points: 2


• Does it remove, not add friction? How useful is normal TV on a small screen? I would say no. Points: 1


• Can the user sell the story? Who would tell their friends they have just seen Simpsons on a 2 inch screen? No. Points: 0

Total points are 6. Probably not a success.



Streamed

• Does it meet a basic human need? Yes. Points: 3


• Does it liberate the user? Yes, you can watch what you want wherever you are. Points: 3


• Does it remove, not add friction? Removes place and time. Integrated with IPTV and it would be a hit. Points: 2


• Can the user sell the story?Yes. Points: 2

Total Points are 10. Probably a success.



What do I think of MobileTV? Well, I am after all full of SOA methodology and thinking. I would therefore think that a Stream solution with full SOA integration which allows me to access content regardless of device would be the most effecient way of securing user success. If I have watched a trailer for a move on my way home I would like my IPTV to suggest that or similar movies. If I have a Fiat car I would like my Fiat ads to be displayed on both my MobileTV and my IPTV channel. Integration seamlessly regardless of device that is what I believe is the key success factor from a technology standpoint.