In late July Virgin Mobile announced it was ending its mobile television service and I wrote that according to some articles a main reason for its demise was the sole, clunky phone available for the service. A recent article in Electronics Weekly reports that Mirics Semiconductor also says the main — but not only — reason was the phone.
Another reason was Virgin used Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB-IP) because spectrum for other protocols, such as DVB-H or MediaFLO, isn’t yet available in the U.K.
Ralph Weir, the vice president of sales and marketing at U.K.-based Mirics, says in the article, “There's actually nothing wrong with DAB-IP, but they were restricted to only 30 per cent of a DAB multiplex. But the real problem is down to the handset — the Lobster is very uncool.”
Ungainly handset
There’s no doubt that the style of cellular phones is a huge reason consumers pick one handset over another with the same features. Even relatively large phones can generate lots of good buzz and cult followings — such as Palm’s Treo and Apple’s iPhone — if they’re great products. Virgin’s Lobster was, unfortunately, as unattractive to consumers as its name.
Mirics recently received $12 million in financing and develops multi-protocol (e.g., DMB, DVB-H, ISDB, AM/FM) product modules (such as receivers) for broadcast and mobile TV and radio.
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