Since its debut in 2007 Qualcomm’s FLO TV mobile television service has been, to put it charitably, less than a runaway success. The problems, say critics, are price, limited channel lineup and spotty coverage.
Qualcomm on Tuesday announced new features and options that aim to address at least some of those complaints and make the service more attractive to consumers. It will enhance the service “with new applications that integrate video with Web-based content and social media tools,” according to the company. The upgrade, says Qualcomm, “is in response to the ways in which consumers today are simultaneously viewing and interacting with content.”
(I’m not one hundred percent sure that consumers are interested in interacting with television, simply because watching television is by definition a passive activity.)
Further, Qualcomm is adding pay-per-day, event pass and time-shifted viewing options. With time-shifted viewing, programs will be stored on FLO-enabled mobile devices (which at this time is still a short list) which allows users to watch the program on-demand, even outside a coverage area.
This is all good news and a step in the right direction but, to me, the more important development in the announcement was a statement by the company that the new features are a stepping stone to delivering live, mobile television to a range of devices including smartbooks and tablets.
Currently FLO TV services are available in a dedicated device (the FLO TV Personal Television, which has received poor reviews, here and here.), in select automobiles or on FLO-enabled smartphones. For all their wizardry, smartphones make for a crummy viewing experience regardless of screen quality. Who wants to watch any program longer than 30 minutes on a four-inch display?
The bigger opportunity for FLO-TV, it seems, is larger Snapdragon-based devices like smartbooks, tablets and e-readers, where battery life is better and screens are larger. Further, the collective size of those markets is likely to be as big or bigger than those looking to watch TV on their smartphone.
The concept of watching good quality live TV on a mobile device is not new, yet it is elusive. That’s surprising, given that we’ve been able to watch live TV at 30,000 feet, traveling at 500 miles an hour, for nearly ten years.
Lisa
