Spies inside Nokia tell Reuters that the largest handset manufacturer in the world is coming out with a cellphone TV. And, it will be affordable to boot.
The mole is quoted as telling Reuters: "Immediately when the phone prices reach the 200-300 euro price point, mobile television goes mass market." Wow.
There may be a reason that other handset companies like Motorola (MOT), Samsung, and Sony-Ericsson (SNE)(ERIC) are not rushing to market with mini-TVs. There is still a lack of evidence that consumers want to watch content on a screen about the size of a postage stamp.
Research firm Parks Associates recently produced a study which said that mobile TV will only have 7% penetration in the US by 2010, and 10% penetration in Europe. Another firm, Strategy Analytics reports that only 5% of cell phone customers will be frequent users of a TV function.
Maybe mobile TV is not going mass.
Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.
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