CES 2008: LG conference's big announcement? MPH, Mobile TV
It’s true. We sat through half an hour of statistics and sales hype, all expecting the third gen Super Blu player or something as exciting (or even an indication on what direction they feel their multi-format players are going, after the possible death of HD DVD). But no. Perhaps they canned their big next fence sittin’ multi-player and had to fill the hour with drivel about mobile TV.
But us Brits have seen mobile TV on our handsets for a few years now, with network providers offering it rather unsuccessfully. LG has partnered with Harris Corp to bring digital TV to the masses for their mobile phones, with a service called MPH, or Mobile Pedestrian Handheld.
Not only that, but they’ve developed a USB dongle for PCs. Plus, a bunch of products with the MPH chip which are set to drop sometime in 2009, such as a special mobile phone, and a rather no-frills GPS system.
Howard L. Lance (pictured), the Chairman, President and CEO of Harris Corp., the other company in this mobile TV marriage, claims that MOH will “be a very compelling business model” for other companies, and that they expected other manufacturers to follow suit. “Mobile broadcasting will be the application that brings viewers back to many of the local broadcast stations”, Lance said, leaving a residue of doubt in most people’s minds in the conference, as several people actually broke out into stifled laughter.
It’s heartbreaking to see LG embarass themselves like this infront of so many CES press members, who were all expecting so much more from the company who stole the show at the last CES.
CES 2008 Special
Read all our coverage from the show in our CES 2008 category
