Nokia’s new N8, it’s first real attempt at a capacitive touch screen phone, has just gone on sale in the UK and across parts of Europe at £429 to buy outright and already free with a £35 a month deal from T-Mobile. But what UK customers won’t be focusing on is the novel way in which it has added DVB-H to the device ‘ through a simple €40 headset.
DVB-H is a broadcast TV technology which has only been launched in Europe in Finland, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, parts of Russia and the Netherlands. The big problem has been the lack of an affordable handset, and this neatly solves the problem.
Nokia suggests that there are working DVB-H services in the Netherlands, Russia, New Delhi and Helsinki, but we know for a fact that KPN in the Netherlands has stopped signing up new customers a while back, so that service is almost dormant. Also a German service which went bust is in the process of being resurrected by T-Mobile, who is negotiating wit the local regulator to use the technology to deliver live soccer league matches.
Nokia points out that broadcast TV is a more reliable signal than WiFi because you can get it anywhere and using DVB-H is battery friendly, which it is, using something like 10% of the battery compared to when you watch DVB-T on a phone, for instance.
There is also an app called Mobile TV available for compatible handsets. It’s either pre-installed on compatible devices or it can be downloaded from the Ovi Store.
The Mobile TV Headset works with the forthcoming Nokia N8 and other Symbian^3 devices which come with the USB-on-the-go feature. It is expected to cost €40 before taxes and will appear in Q4 2010.
Whatever you do don’t buy one in the UK, there is no spectrum even allocated to DVB-H and there isn’t any expected to be until after 2012, if it ever happens at all. But for the rest of Europe and perhaps places like South Africa, this might be a key product.