Mobile TV to be “as natural as watching TV in the living room”

Mobile TV may not be a huge thing here in North America yet, but it is certainly making headway. According to Virgin Mobile founder Sir Richard Brandson, “Mobile TV is a signal of a new era of mobile business. As everyone enjoys watching TV, seeing one’s favorite TV programs on mobile phones will be as natural as watching TV in the living room.”

Even software giant Microsoft is making substantial steps into this market, with demonstrations at 3GSM thanks to partnerships with Virgin Mobile and BT Movio. They say that mobile TV will be a driving force behind growing the mobile phone industry, making cell phones even more “necessary” than they are today.

The battle between GSM and CDMA technologies might be a preview of what will happen, or is already happening in the realm of mobile TV. There are a handful of major standards currently available, all vying for supremacy. Korea seems to be heading toward the T-DMB and S-DMB road, whereas the United States seems to prefer MediaFLO. However, Europe’s DVB-H appears to be the most popular, according to Telecoms Korea.