Sunday, May 10, 2009

Mobile TV – Will it Click

Mobile TV
Mobile TV is a service that allows user to watch television over mobile devices such as Mobile phones .This service is generally provided by telecom network providers . This is one of the features generally provided as part of 3G services but can also be provided otherwise.South Korea was the first country to introduce Mobile TV. In India Mobile TV is launched by several operators for eg BSNL introduced this service in eastern and north eastern regions in 2007 with a service name Isee. With the launch of 3G services by BSNL MobileTv has again got a boost. Other players like UTV, National geographic Channel , Reliance Communications , MTNL , BSNL are also joining the bandwagon.

Despite Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) approval of TV access on Mobile , service providers cant provide much because of spectrum and regulatory issues by Ministry of Information and broadcast. The regulations don't allow a direct transmission of TV Channels leaving the operators trying out other strategies like Unicasting the content to the users ie one handset get the content from the central repository and transmits it to other through wireless network, this consumes huge resources like bandwidth etc which doesn't allow operators to benefit much from the service.

UTV New Media , has launched a music video channel on Mobile TV named UTVatPlay. This will allow users to view music video in various languages. This application can be downloaded by the users of BSNL , MTNL , Idea and Vodafone using GPRS and is available at a price of Rs 30 Per month. According to T N Prabhu, CEO, UTV New Media, “We are extremely pleased to launch music video channel on UTV@play which is India’s first full music video channel giving the subscriber an absolute TV viewing experience on the mobile handset. We are sure that the youth will accept with utmost zeal and enthusiasm.” With the help of this service people can play songs with a touch of a button and have a huge database of 20k plus songs at their disposal.

Reliance Communications has been providing Mobile TV to its users via R-World offering news etc. According to Krishna Durbha, Head Business and Marketing, VAS Reliance Communications “While its difficult to quantify the number of users, Reliance has revenues in a few lakhs every month through its mobile TV offering. We are currently offering 11 news channel. A user can watch TV on the handset with a lag of a few minutes as they are not transmitted live,”.

Aircel has also launched Mobile TV for just Rs 49 per month having a wide array of 31plus channels giving users the ability to catch with news, entertainment while on move.

With a huge base (300 Million) of Mobile Phone users and an addition of around 10 million per months , Mobile TV seems to be a promising platform. According to SpringBoard Research , Mobile TV market can reach $360 million in India with a penetration of 5-6 % in the first year itself that means over 20million subscribers in the first year itself. According to SpringBoard research 34% people says that they will be interested in this service if it is available and affordable.

Mobile TV may seems to be a silver line for the Indian Telecom Industry where Average Revenue per User ( ARPU) even for top players like Reliance , Bharti Airtel, Idea is falling by 10-15%. Mobile TV can help them boost their revenues as telecom operators are relying heavily on value added services to boost revenue. According to Bayypunedi, director and founder of Apalya Technologies “Other than the spectrum issues, constrain in handset, standardization of technology platform are some of the barriers for the growth of this segment. Moreover, India is still predominantly a prepaid market. In such a scenario getting the volumes is difficult,”.

Mobile TV seems to be having a promising future but some issues need to be resolved before it becomes a reality.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Microsoft Buys Bigpark – Going Big in Gaming

Microsoft acquires BigPark
Microsoft announced that it has acquired Canadian game maker BigPark. BigPark was setup by founders of EA and Distinctive software who have delivered many hit games like “Need for Speed” , “ FIFA Soccer” and “NBA Street”. BigPark is a team of 50 employees founded in 2007 and they are majorly an online gaming firm.

According to some ,this move of Microsoft is somewhat unexpected as it recently laid off 28% of its massive in game advertising division staff.

BigPark will work on a mysterious Xbox 360 game that Microsoft and BigPark is known to be working for a year. According to Phil Spencer, general manager, Microsoft Game Studios “The team is composed of some of the most experienced and creative minds working in the industry today,” and “The combination of the BigPark and Microsoft Game Studios talent pools will be an accelerant for growth and innovation. We believe BigPark has tremendous potential to create new properties and innovative gaming experiences for our platforms, one of which we’re looking forward to showcasing at the E3 Expo in June,”.

This move of Microsoft shows the interest of Microsoft in gaming domain and it is preparing hard to compete with compete with many other players in this domain like Sony PSP and Nintendo to name a few.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Apple May Launch Gaming Console Soon

Old saying “When there is smoke there is fire”  seems holding true for Apple , There are lot ofrumors  floating in the market regarding Apple diving deeper  into the gaming market and will be launching gaming consoles soon. The  rumors are very strong and videos  on youtube related to Apple gaming console have gained high popularity and are most sought after video’s on youtube.

Apple Gaming Console - IGame

 

Now with the latest news of Microsoft loosing Richard Teversham, Director European XBoxbusiness unit has added more heat to the discussion and rumors, He has joined Apple’s European unit for some “education related role”. Apple also hired Raja Conduri, Former AMD graphics chip CTO.

Hiring of executives related to gaming domain suggests that Apple is looking forward  for a share in the gaming market and “why not” Apple already has more than 9000 games for ipod and ipod touch which are highly popular among the users and there lot of space in the gaming market where apple can prove its presence.

 

Last Year ( May 2008 ) there were rumors that Apple has filed a patent for most advanced gaming controller  which is a 3D gaming controller for apple TV and can sense movement in X,Y,Z directions. It seems like Apple is targeting to build an advanced gaming system which wont have much of controllers and input will be mostly human movements addressing the complaints of parents and users of no physical activity while gaming.

 

Based on these past rumors and news it seems like Apple will soon be launching an innovative , advanced gaming system to capture big share of the gaming market and people will be lining up days to grab their Apple Gaming console.

Whats your guess? When would apple launch gaming console?