Telegent's market success with analog mobile TV tuner chips — shown in this clip of the company's field trial on the Shanghai Maglev bullet train — challenges accepted wisdom about the mobile TV market.
Analog TV is so over, you say? Not according to a new study of the worldwide mobile phone market by Forward Concepts.
Driven by demand in China, Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe and a greater than 50 percent market share, free-to-air analog mobile TV will continue to dwarf digital mobile TV on the world's 78 million TV-enabled handsets.
"The analog ecosystem that was built out over 60 years is available, and it's built out all over the world," said Diana Jovin, VP of marketing at analog and hybrid mobile TV chip maker Telegent. Existing infrastructure and content, familiarity and worldwide economic uncertainty creates a pretty compelling case that analog mobile TV will stick around for a while.
“A significant market exists for consumers who want the familiar TV content and broadcast delivery available on free-to-air TV handsets,” said IMS Research analyst Anna Maxbauer. “IMS estimates market demand for analog TV handsets at more than 150 million units in 2013.”
And let's not overlook that 'free' is everyone's favorite price.
"It's been our observation that there have been several [digital mobile TV] deployments around the world that are subscription [models], and then there's Japan and Korea with mobile TV that's free, advertiser supported," said David Neff, president of broadcasting equipment company Axcera.
"Like anything else, free is very popular. It's my opinion that that's the way to go. You have to get the numbers, get the mass market to use the service,” he said. “Beyond that you can up sell premium services."
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