TV on your phone: Where is the value ?

I was at the kickoff event of the Excitera Innovation Challenge 2008 and there was a guy from Ericsson making a presentation (it was the first one and I was a bit late). He was talking about services over mobile phones, like the one Nextel provides to Nascar fans and video conference calls, TV and similar services over mobile networks and phones.

The presenter from Ericsson (sorry dude but there is no real value there)

All are cool and innovative services. As it look soon the quality will be good enough not to loose the ball when watching a game”. But are they a killer app? Will the users life change from being able to watch TV on their mobile devices (phones, smart phones, etc)? As I see it they don’t provide much value to the customer. For starts watching TV on the go, in such a tiny screen is not something that thrills optometrist and it will kill you eyes. Second video calls are not needed to communicate, yes there are some occasions where you will like to show a hot new pair of shoes or outfit to your friend or a mom transmitting her sons first word to his husband when he is at work. But voice is the killer app, SMS is the killer app not video, because the satisfy the basic need we have to communicate.

Multimedia content over mobile networks might produce value to a niche market, but is not something the mass market will consume. Also the people behind it fail to transmit a message that show the real value. For example the guy making the presentation, was talking about how camera phone was used in a helicopter to transmit a live feed over the Internet in the Netherlands. I understand it shows tangible evidence that their technology works, that the innovation is great, but where is the real value. Where is the pain being relieved by a phone in helicopter? It shouldn’t be about showing off Ericsson’s innovation is about selling and all this is my personal opinion, they failed to do so.

How about this scenarios, imagine the following in….

• Telemedicine: where doctors in rural areas can use this phones to get a second opinion. Or even better that without the need of a doctor to be present a diagnosis could be made. Here people save money in traveling expenses and may even save a life.
• Business: Managers and owners in charge of many stores or sites can give out directions to their employees based on what is happening or “check out” the store by receiving a feed from the security system.  That way they can see what their employees are doing.
• Parental Tool: For parents to see what is ready happening or checking on the baby sitters. They also can ask their children to validate that they are actually “on the mall” and not a crazy party.
• Construction: The architect or engineer can’t always be on the site, the person in charge can report and back to the engineer when a critical decision is needed.

They might be a bit niche, but the can provide real value to the parties involved and spillover to other markets.

At the end, while Ericsson is showing off their innovation and “playing around with cars and helicopters”, TerraNet is creating technology that will change the role of mobile operators when providing services and disrupt how we see mobile networks.