Apple may entirely eschew mobile TV networks everywhere, but simply by letting the device work with wi-fi, both the iPhone and its iPod Touch baby brother may provide the breakthrough cachet that many mobile TV platforms have been looking for to attract customers. The iPhone’s 3.5 inch screen is what most video environment’s crave, and instead of waiting for new copycat devices from the world’s handset companies why not deliver your mobile TV proposition to all those existing iPhone customers?
At least that’s what PacketVideo thinks and will show at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week the same device that it showed a year ago, now affectionately called the Telly, a dongle for an iPod and iPhone, with a slight difference – this one has a conditional access system from Nagravision.
We can hear a sharp intake of breath from all you guys out there that know the conditional access world ‘ no-one pays for a device integration with CA unless there is already a order placed. So take your pick ‘ either this device was designed to appear with an AT&T or Verizon label on it, sporting a MediaFLO version of the dongle or it was aimed at a European or Asian Telco installation with a DVB-H chip in it. Our spies say it is for the Italian market, but that would have to be with the exclusive iPhone supplier Telecom Italia, rather than the dominant mobile TV supplier 3 Italia, unless Apple is suddenly going to open up the phone to other players, which would put 3 Italia in the picture.
We would expect both the MediaFLO and the DVB-H usual suspects in the long run, and so without Apple’s help the prediction we made over two years ago that it would be madness not to put mobile TV on an Apple device, has come to pass not once, but twice in a week (see separate story on an ISDB-T version of the iPhone).
What we would guess has happened is that Qualcomm’s MediaFLO had a launch planned for the nationwide MediaFLO network that was supposed to happen when the digital switchover in the US happened next week on February 17th. Now that has been postponed by the Obama administration, it is likely that since the technology was primed and ready no-one saw any reason to call off its own launch. Attaching a device to MediaFLO would have required a MediaFLO chip (from Qualcomm, who else) and a conditional access system (Nagra is now one of many that works with MediaFLO).
The two companies say quite clearly that the new device will work with both DVB-H and MediaFLO to begin with and other systems later, and that handles the video stream decryption in the dongle, and then sends an unencrypted stream via wi-fi to the iPhone. Of course that means it will also work with the iPod Touch and the Sony PSP and various other devices.
Presumably, unlike the KDDI ISDB-T iPhone dongle which works in the same way but is designed to be in contact with iPhone, because it provides extra battery power, this device can be either in contact or a ways off ‘ in a pocket for instance. Of course there is no reason, why a version of this cannot be developed for DVB-T markets (there are after all only 39 of them already) with the only issue being poor in-building penetration and a little extra battery power required. If that happened then there might not be any point to launching mobile TV at all.
Telly was first introduced by PacketVideo in February 2008 at Mobile World Congress. The product decodes broadcast signals and repurposes them for high quality viewing, somehow recognizing the consumer’s device type which ensures optimum rendering of the TV signal, but we suppose some confidence that it is not suppyling hundreds of other nearby wi-fi devices. The thing requires a Nagravision’s microSD chip with conditional access codes embedded in the Telly.
‘Operators that have launched commercial mobile TV services in Europe and Asia are anticipating new revenue streams,” said Jean-Luc Jezouin, Senior Vice-President Product Line Management Digital TV for Nagravision, part of the Kudelski Group.
Despite this, the ease of use that most specialist mobile TV devices require will still be missing (how do you choose channels on the iPhone with this?), and there is little or no opportunity for interactive mobile TV services using this approach ‘ but it’s a great way of getting a large number of compatible devices onto the market quickly and we expect very cheaply, though prices have not been revealed so far.
The two companies have promised the first version to be commercially available next quarter on a service operator’s network ‘ so potentially one of the live DVB-H services in Europe now that MediaFLO expansion in the US has been delayed ‘ likely to be one of the weaker DVB-H operations to date such as Swisscom because it is an iPhone distributor, whereas 3 Italia ad KPN don’t have anything to do with the iPhone as yet. Alternatively in Asia there are DVB-H installations in Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, but they are hardly likely to be filled up with iPhones.
PacketVideo remains a subsidiary of NextWave Wireless, itself in deep financial trouble given that PacketVideo has more revenues that the rest of the company put together, and yet this is the part which is supposed to be up for sale. The company has always pioneered video software stacks on portable devices and has than 320 devices deployed around the world.
Originally the ‘Telly’ was designed to be used by what was once a sister company, now management buy out, IP Wireless and its TDtv mobile TV technology. We wonder if that’s still a option?