The standard smartphone platform is continually evolving to include richer functionality.
Martti Granberg, Nokia sales and media director for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, says the smartphone technology will be far beyond what it is now.
"With mobile phones already allowing users to listen to the radio, record images, and play games, mobile TV is likely to be next," says Granberg.
In September 2004, Nokia, Motorola, NEC, Siemens and Sony Ericsson announced their co-operation in bringing broadcast services to mobile devices.
Nokia, Philips, Universal Studios and Vodafone have also joined forces to form the Broadcast Mobile Convergence Group to explore the opportunities surrounding mobile TV.
Although Granberg admits it is impossible to know with absolute accuracy which concepts will be successful, he says research and development is undertaken only if concepts are supported by extensive consumer studies.
Granberg says developers of mobile technology need to maintain a balance between what can be implemented to broaden the mobile environment and what the market is willing to support.
Support for mobile TV has seen pilots introduced in several European countries and the United States, using Internet Protocol (IP) datacasting over digital video broadcasting networks enhanced for mobile application (DVB-H).
DVB-H is a standard specified by the Digital Video Broadcasting organisation for the transmission of TV content and data to handheld devices such as mobile phones with unique requirements in terms of screen size, power consumption, and reception.
"The DVB-H receiver is integrated into handsets in a similar way to Bluetooth receivers," says Granberg. "The system operates separately from GSM or 3G services because users would receive content as it happens, not on demand."
Granberg says greater interaction with TV content will be the biggest impact that mobile TV will introduce.
"Until now interactivity has been limited to SMS, but mobile TV allows extensive interaction possibilities via the GPRS channel, enabling viewers to influence content through instant voting or broadcasters to send additional information to handsets," he explains.
Commercial mobile TV services are expected to start in Europe during 2006, but are already being introduced in Japan using a different technology.
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