Mobile TV: "it's a Sneric", say Sony & Ericsson

Stuart Corner
Friday, 24 November 2006 00:09

IT Industry - Deals

Having co-operated successfully in cellphone handsets Sony and Ericsson are eyeing what they expect will be a boom market enabling people to watch TV on mobile handsets.

At a joint Sony and Ericsson press conference in Stockholm, Per Nordlof, Ericsson's director of product strategy told reporters that about one third of the world's mobile phone users will regularly be watch TV broadcasts on their handsets in two years.

"It plays to the strength of both companies," Eric Siereveld, Sony Europe's director of professional solutions, was reported saying. He claimed Ericsson was the lead supplier of mobile TV networks, while Sony has a lead in TV receiving equipment

Associated Press reported that the two companies demonstrated a number of solutions they expect to become commonplace in home entertainment, including systems where film footage and pictures can easily be sent between a regular TV and a mobile phone, allowing friends and family members to share footage with the press of a button.

Such solutions - based on the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), a cross-industry standard for allowing digital devices to share content through a home network - could hit the market by the second half of 2007, Nordlof said. Ericsson and Sony will also work together to create new software to power such DLNA-based home networks, he said.

These developments follow Ericsson's announcement in September  of a restructuring into three "more customer-oriented" units: Networks, Global Services and Multimedia with the main aim being to strengthen its ability to exploit the growing market for the delivery of multimedia services, especially to mobile devices. The new organisation will be in effect as of January 1, 2007.