MobiTV, Inc. is a global television and digital radio service provider for cell phone users. The MobiTV service is available in US through Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T Mobility, Alltel, and several other regional carriers; and in Canada through Bell Canada, Rogers and TELUS Mobility. MobiTV is not live broadcast TV, but it provides primarily pre-loaded video clips for download (streaming), but for the FIFA 2010 World Cup, ESPN Mobile TV via MobiTV offers live match broadcasts depending on your carrier.
The company claims more than 7 million subscribers and offers video clips of many popular channels such as MSNBC, ABC News Now, CNN, Fox News, Fox Sports, ESPN Mobile TV, NBC Mobile, CNBC, CSPAN, Discovery Channel, TLC, The company has raised more than $100 million from investor’s including Redpoint Ventures, Mehlo Ventures, Oak Investment Partners and Sorrento Ventures. MobiTV has also earned revenues by developing applications for Apple iPhone, and has made many top-grossing applications for the same. MobiTV’s program is the second highest revenue generating iPhone application in Apple’s store, gaining in popularity since World Cup began two weeks ago.
MobiTV’s Chief Executive officer Charlie Nooney said in an interview “We are very much in the acceleration phase, and our pipeline is extraordinarily Android heavy”. MobiTV is now targeting Android Phones which jumped to 9.6 percent of the global Smartphone market in the first quarter, from 1.5 percent last year. Android Operating System is a Google’s product and is used on phones sold by many manufacturers including Motorola, HTC, and Samsung. The main reason for MobiTV’s success is that its services are supported by most of the top selling mobile phones. It faces competition from FloTV, the world’s largest phone-chip maker, but FloTV has failed to attract people because its services are not supported by many phones.
Users of MobiTV on iPhone have to pay $10 per month for live news about the world and sports. It also gives the access to 200 shows on demand. MobiTV shares revenue from every download done. Nooney said “We have more than 10 million subscribers and we are planning a drastic increase in the same upon launching are services on Android.”
After great response on iPhone, MobiTV is very positive for its success on Android phones. Android is Google’s operating system for mobile devices based on ARM architecture. It is a competitor for Symbian Platform phones, Apples iPhone and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and Windows Phone. Since there are good number of Android Phones lined up to be launched this year.
Some of them are:
1. HTC EVO 4G – Brought out in collaboration with US mobile carrier Sprint.
2. Samsung Galaxy S l9000 – Its amazing piece of machinery and Samsung’s customised version of Android 2.1
3. Sony Xperia X10 – Its the first Android phone by Sony
4. Dell Aero – Claims to be the lightest Android Phone
5. HTC Desire – Another featured pack mobile by HTC balancing cost and features.
With these new phones and technologies coming up one thing is for sure that customers will get similar features among all the phone models and their will be a good chance for them to get the best value for money deal.
