Mobile TV Popular But Outshone By Communication, Interest In Iphone—Canalys

(c) MocoNews

By James Quintana Pearce

A survey by Canalys has shown a moderately strong interest in mobile TV. The online survey was conducted in April among more than 2,000 employed, adult mobile phone users in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, and found that 49 percent of respondents had absolutely no interest in mobile TV—even a free service. So 51 percent (of a very large audience) is interested in some form of mobile TV, but Canalys points out that a range of content and options is required to get these customers.

For example:

• 29 percent showed interest in Live TV such as sport or reality shows

• 23 percent showed interest in content related to hobbies or personal interests that they could not get at home

• 23 percent showed interest in watching the shows they did get at home

• 15 percent said they would be interested in watching videos from web sites such as YouTube

• 14 percent liked the idea of place-shifting content that they had already recorded at home

• There was similar levels of interest in short clips, half-hour programmes and full-length movies

• For ad-supported services, the survey showed higher interest around vehicle and pedestrian navigation, mobile e-mail and IM than for TV.

Canalys also asked what brands consumers would consider when choosing their next phone (which is a good question, since realistically very few people can tell you what brand of handset they’ll buy next, but they know what types they’ll be looking at). 84 percent would consider Nokia, and this was followed by Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Motorola (I’m guessing these rankings would be different in the US). Apple had a mid-table position, behind LG but slightly ahead of RIM, HP and Palm. Not incredibly high, but pretty good considering it’s not even on the market yet.

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