For many years, mobile telecommunication operators have been pushing mobile TV to 3G mobiles. Unfortunately for them, there has been a lot less support among consumers to watch video on those small screens.
Many issues were identified with Mobile TV, that prevented widespread adoption:
* Relatively expensive - typical from 50c to a few dollars to watch anything from one TV show, through to a monthly subscription.
* Poor 3G coverage - Particularly prevalent in the US (although an issue in most parts of the world), poor quality mobile broadband networks led to video stuttering or stopping mid-stream.
* Poor selection of content
* Content was not tailored to support the "mobile context" - ie: I'm on the bus and want to watch a cut down version of my favourite show from last night, etc...
Joost recently announced that their iPhone application had been installed more than 1 million times (http://mashable.com/2009/01/30/at-least-joost-is-doing-well-on-the-iphone/). This would indicate that it is now accessible to a large proportion of people. However, if we look at the issues above, how many does Joost address:
* Relatively expensive - check - the Joost app is Free
* Poor 3G coverage - the Joost app is prone to the same issues
* Poor selection of content - while broader than most mobile operator's catalogues, the Joost selection is still somewhat smaller than competitor, Hulu
* Content not tailored for the "mobile context" - Joost is simply streaming its desktop content to the iPhone
It appears that Joost doesn't really address 3 of the 4 issues that's limiting Mobile TV to take off. I find it hard to believe that users will forego these issues, if the application is free.
Maybe Joost isn't the nirvana of Mobile TV!
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