This week I attended the CTIA (Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association) conference in Los Angeles. As expected there were lots of interesting new innovations in the mobility space clearly visible at the conference.
Very visible were the number of independent software vendors (ISVs) that were building Mobile TV applications. Mobile TV is no longer just a wish but is now a reality. There were a variety of companies with businesses targeted at Mobile TV. Some were software companies providing enabling technologies (infrastruture) for the carriers like Sprint and Verizon to deliver TV services to consumers via subscription. There were quite a few companies developing content for mobile TV.
Companies like Streamezzo provide a platform for designing user interfaces, organizing channel offers etc, while others like GOTV offer content like Fashion, music videos etc. Another company MobiTV provides streaming video content for mobile phones. For a monthly fee users can access some cable channels.
Two thoughts on Mobile TV - though there are lots of companies focused on TV for mobile phones, the most disruptive technology in this space is SlingMedia (http://www .slingmedia.com). This company has built a technology that can convert your cable/TV into an IP-addressable device. This means that regardless of where you are in the world, you can access your TV channels through a regular web-URL. If thats the case, you can access the content not only on your PC, but also on your phones if you have connectivity and bandwidth.
However the Sling Media box is about $300. So for consumers that do not want to invest that much money upfront, they can access the same services through companies like MobiTV on a montly basis via the carriers like AT&T. Sling Media of course has no monthly fees ( all you have to do is purchase the box) whereas the companies like MobiTV do subscriptions. However at $10 a month- consumers will quickly reach the cost of buying an actual Sling Box - so in my view most of the buzz will be around this exciting new technology and company.
During the course of the week I will review some other great companies I saw at the conference.
