Last year, a market research firm revealed consumer survey results warning of "lukewarm interest in multimedia handsets." At that time, the firm was among the many who insisted that consumers commuting to work wouldn't want to watch video on the tiny screen of a cellphone whose battery would run out by the time they reached the office. Moreover, they wouldn't pay a high premium for its regular subscription.

Today, such firms are predicting great things for mobile TV, and lifestyle media is debating how multimedia- and interactivity-enabled handsets will change our daily lives. Would it make the couch potatoes more mobile, or would it encroach on our already diminishing outdoor lives?

At the recent DVB World Forum, Modeo president Michael Schueppert predicted that cellphones would cater to just half the market for mobile TV, with the other half preferring cellphones for talking. The key market for mobile TV would be the 18-35 age group and major TV broadcast channels will commence mobile-specific versions of programming by 2009.

In-Stat reports that China is focusing on 3G and mobile-TV services, and for the broadcast sector, IPTV and mobile TV are likely to be key segments over the next five years. In-Stat predicts the number of mobile TV subscribers will reach 94 million by 2009, with the Chinese government pushing for its widespread availability for the 2008 Olympics.

On the other hand, South Korea leads the Asian pack with TU Media, an SK Telecom affiliate, offering several satellite DMB video channels to handheld devices and in-car terminals. The country's cellphone vendors--Samsung, LG Electronics and SK Teletech--have released many DMB models since last year.

South Korea's importance both as a market for mobile TV and as a developer of handsets is increasingly being recognized by IC vendors. Frontier Silicon, which has led vendors supplying ICs for terrestrial DMB to South Korea, is joined by Analog Devices Inc. Texas Instruments recently opened an R&D center there to develop technologies like T-DMB and DVB-H.

South Korea is even taking T-DMB to China, India and Germany. Samsung plans to export 200,000 T-DMB handsets to Beijing-based Jolon DMB, which will start mobile TV services in Q2 this year. T-DMB commercial service is expected to start in eight major German cities this month ahead of the World Cup football finals. India's Ministry of Information and Communication recently agreed to cooperate with the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India, the Tata Group and operator Bharati-Airtel to speed up the launch of T-DMB commercial services, and planned a trial in Mumbai.

Taiwan, which started 3G multimedia services last year, hosted the Mobile Film Festival held from late September to early November last year. Organized by Nokia and Chunghwa Telecom, the festival featured a contest of "mobisodes" or short videos.

Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs has directed the establishment of a Mobile TV Industry Exchange Association, whose members include over 60 TV stations, telecom operators, handset manufacturers, IC vendors and equipment manufacturers. BenQ plans to launch a mobile-TV phone for the Taiwan market within the second half of the year.

With mobile-TV services just around the corner, it is now incumbent upon electronics engineers to design the necessary handsets and equipment to carry the market forward. You will be challenged by the many standards still vying for space, requirements to keep power consumption down and possibly design or program multiprocessor SoCs into handsets.

And these are exactly the challenges that will be addressed at the Embedded Systems Conference to be held August 17-18 in Taipei. I invite you to attend the forums and seminars, and share your design problems and experiences with the community.

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