Qualcomm is considering establishing a joint venture — technological, financial — with companies in Taiwan to provide Qualcomm’s MediaFLO-based mobile television in that country, DigiTimes reports.
Jeffrey Brown, the head of global strategy and business development at Qualcomm MediaFLO, said in Taipei that Taiwan’s penetration rate for cellular phones is more than 90 percent and more than 80 percent for cable TV. He said market research conducted by Qualcomm in Taiwan reported that more than 80 percent of the respondents said they would pay $6 – $10 per month to receive up to 20 mobile TV programs.
Brown also said it would be “unhealthy” for the industry to offer mobile TV for free. If you’ve been following the mobile TV market around the world you know that a few mobile TV offerings are free, such as T-DMB in South Korea, as I posted.
Qualcomm joint ventures
DigiTimes notes that Qualcomm partnered with several Taiwan telecommunications companies — China Network Systems, Vibo Telecom, Asia Pacific Telecom and Taiwan Television Enterprise (TTV) — to obtain a license to test mobile TV in the country. Tests have already begun, the article says.
Establishing joint ventures isn’t new to Qualcomm. The article says Qualcomm has a Japanese venture, called MediaFLO Japan Planning, with KDDI. Qualcomm also is working in Japan with a subsidiary of Softbank, Mobile Media Planning, to offer technology services, according to sources in the article.
As indicated in an IMS Research report I discussed a few days ago, Qualcomm’s MediaFLO is doing well in the United States, Europe is mostly DVB-H territory and Asia is somewhat of a mishmash including T-DMB and ISDB-T.
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