The living room needs are more laid back and general in nature, whereas the on the go needs are more specific and require prescriptive solutions. It was indeed a fallacy to call the solution for on the go information and entertainment needs a Mobile TV. It is even a greater fallacy to develop this solution on the lines of living room TV.

A TV today, is a living room solution to information and entertainment needs. The technologists and service providers have positioned Mobile TV as the mobile equivalent of the living room TV for on the go needs. However, the living room and on the go needs are fundamentally different. Information and entertainment are vertical applications in on the go space and horizontal in the living room space as they respectively address different consumption considerations. The living room needs are more laid back and general in nature, whereas the on the go needs are more specific and require prescriptive solutions. It was indeed a fallacy to call the solution for on the go information and entertainment needs a Mobile TV. It is even a greater fallacy to develop this solution on the lines of living room TV.

Hoping to get an overnight large scale adoption, the technologist driven service providers imposed the living room paradigm on “on the go” usage, at the concept, delivery and content levels but that has not worked. It indeed was a fallacy. The living room paradigm has been at loggerheads with on the go needs from the day one and hence the utter reluctance on the part of mobile users to accept that solution. Since 80% of population in any market is technology conservative, it is highly unlikely that the masses will accept any solution that has not evolved but is imposed on the grounds - since it has done well in the living room should also be good for on the go needs. The early success in some markets comes from the adoption by technology savvy, whose interest is very limited to the functionality of the technology rather in the need addressing solution

The living room TV has evolved over the last five decades and the solution that we have today is limited by the legacies – including the way it is made available to the users. The concept of TV evolved out of radio, hence a broadcasting solution. All this while, the concept of mass storage at the user end was not very strong, first it was the cost and then it was the lack of a mechanism to index the content for easy and quick retrieval. Since the flavour of the TV delivery technology remained broadcasting, the viewers have always remained at the receiving end.

Today it is a different world. People can upload and download programs, the wireless speeds are increasing, the storage technology has become affordable for mass storage and database solutions exist for video storage and quick retrieval. In contrast to the living room TV, an “on the go” solution for entertainment needs does not have to be live and the content delivery mechanism also does not have to be streaming video. This in fact should simplify the scenario for mass acceptance.

 

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