The Vodafone Germany CEO is telling German newspapers that it is almost ready, after a year of preparation, with a TV service to replace the IPTV it stopped selling there, only instead of doing what other Vodafone countries have done, and shifting to Microsoft Mediaroom from its older architecture, he says that the new offering will be a mix of satellite, cable and IPTV. Now how could that work? Well unless it is getting into the content business and launching its own TV channels (not impossible) it’s tough to think this through. But how about this for a guess. Vodafone delivers OTT through Deutsche Telekom, cableco and its own DSL broadband lines, and where these are not fat enough, books some capacity on the mobile satellite services from either Inmarsat or the Solaris service from Eutelsat and SES, plus a traditional DTH satellite. It could then deliver the same channels SD, HD and Mobile TV (streamed over HSDPA and then LTE) to any device, anywhere in Germany. Just a guess.
US streaming mobile TV aggregator MobiTV says that the Android platform is the one that is taking off for watching TV on the go and so is expanding its core live TV and video-on-demand service to more Android-based devices. It currently offers TV on the Sprint EVO
4G and HTC Hero devices, as well as the AT&T Motorola Backflip. It will now add the T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant this month. MobiTV now has 10 million subscribers, and viewers on the Android platform watch 23% more minutes per active viewer, versus all other mobile operating platforms (we presume that includes the iPhone). MobiTV aggregates content from NBC, ESPN, Disney, CBS and Warner Music and also offers an NBA League Pass.
According to DisplaySearch’s quarterly forecast total TV shipments in 2010 will be more than 242 million units, a big jump up 15% after only 2% unit growth in 2009. LCD TVs look strong, rising to 188 million units, and even plasma and CRT TV technologies look better than they did. The trend towards LED backlight TVs continues except that there is an acute supply chain shortage which is holding it back (and holding up the price we imagine). LCD is the dominant TV technology at over 50% shipment share in nearly all regions. China continues to be a hot LCD TV growth market, up 35% year on year in 2010. It was up 119% year on year in 2009.
Nokia has sold off its HSPA and LTE wireless modem business to Japan’s Renesas Electronics for $200 million. It’s a wise move for Nokia, which shifts 1,100 R&D staff in Finland, India, the UK and Denmark onto Renasas’ books, and where once it used this technology to differentiate its devices, it is now a commodity and Nokia now needs to focus more on smartphone and interface design. The transfer should complete as early as the fourth quarter.
Disney has bought, a silicon valley start up which specializes in music and games for Apple’s App Store called Tapulous and will merge it into its mobile games division, which is already strong in the mobile apps market. Tapulous was only founded in 2008 and offers ‘Tap Tap Revenge’ which it says has been downloaded by 30% of iPhone users. Disney says it already has over 240 million users interacting with it on mobile phones through a variety of SMS contact, mobile web access and users of the Disney mobile app.
US IPTV DRM company Verimatrix, has teamed with I-Systems, a Chilean systems integrator, to deploy Verimatrix’ VCAS in a hybrid architecture at Gtd Manquehue. It is part of the Gtd Group operating around Santiago and offers TV services over a FTTH/DVB-C hybrid IP network. It will use the Verimatrix VCAS for DVB hybrid solution and the system uses I-Systems middleware, VoD servers from GoBackTV and hybrid set-tops from Xavi.
Nagravision, one of the world’s biggest conditional access firms, says that it has landed a deal to secure ONO’s hybrid broadband – broadcast TV network. ONO already uses Nagra on its cable system. The two say this will be the first broadband – broadcast content delivery network in Spain, combining traditional Pay-TV services with DTT and OTT internet video. Wonder what it will use as a set top? Oh yes, we said last week, Tivo.
US researcher In-Stat says that the portable entertainment device will become a $5 billion semiconductor market as early as 2011, with eReaders being the star of the category. Other devices include portable navigation devices, while personal media players continue to demand more semiconductors. The markets was just under $4 billion in 2000. E-readers will have double digital shipment growth over the next five years and by 2014 will eat $1.5 billion of silicon revenue on their own, reaching 33.5 million units. Processors for eReaders alone will reach $251 million. Wireless digital photo frames will start to outpace non-wireless shipments by 2013 while personal navigation devices will decline by 2014 as handsets absorb this function.
Pocket Lint this week says that Slingmedia has said it plans to launch a Freesat+ PVR in the UK before the end of the year, with built in place shifting features. It should come out before Christmas and may include DVB-T2 technology for Freeview. Sling Media already offers such a box for Freeview viewers, but so far has not hit the Freesat market.
Siano Mobile Silicon has spoken out over allegations from Chinese start up Innofidei which assert that Siano is infringing on its Chinese patents. Siano says that Innofidei has written to several Siano customers and claimed that Innofidei’s action was the result of frustration at Siano’s success in the CMMB market where it holds more than 70% of the market. Innofidei has not yet taken the claims to a court of law, but Siano said it looks forward with full confidence to proving they are completely unfounded.