Commentary

Another Failed Digital Model Scrambles To The iPad Lifeboat

ipad lifeboat

How much more legacy media can the iPad be expected to save? Newspapers and magazines, having failed to make the money they wanted on the Web, are lurching towards the tablet format in the hopes the larger, lusher platform will attract more serious ad and consumer dollars. And now one of the biggest disappointments in early mobile media, mobile TV, makes its play for the iPad. Cellular industry chipmaker Qualcomm has created a device that will connect its network of streaming live broadcasts to a WiFi iPad. The small unit taps into a network that Qualcomm grew for its MediaFLO over the past four years.

MediaFLO was an ambitious plan to create a separate network of TV broadcast signals on cell towers around the country. This plan let the service send a much more robust stream to compatible handsets than might be possible over a 2G or 3G data channel. Clearly Qualcomm also always had in mind using the MediaFLO network to reach in-car AV equipment as well. It launched first with Verizon and then through AT&T and had decent coverage in scores of major metros. But as Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs said at last week's All Things D conference, "there are people who love it, but the numbers are not nearly what we expected." In fact, Jacobs hinted that Qualcomm may use some of that network to deliver other kinds of mobile data to devices.

And now comes the iPad plan. The PocketFlo device will work in tandem with an iPad app to deliver a combination of TV signal and integrated Twitter feeds. According to reports the device/app combo will actually record the TV programs and then send them to the iPad via its WiFi connection.

Wow! If this really is the model Qualcomm in considering you have to wonder why they don't just close up the MediaFlo shop now and spare themselves the pain of a DOA plan if ever I hear one. What use case are they dreaming about? "Hey honey don't forget your pocket book, and grab your phone, and don't leave the iPad behind, and by all means don't leave the house without the PocketFlo.

One of the epic failures of the product on handsets was the sheer 'forgettability' of it. I had a Verizon MediaFlo review unit pretty much from the time it was issued. To its credit, the service could deliver beautiful live images to a tiny screen, and some of the smartest iterations of the interface made it easy to navigate a grid of limited choices and still keep viewing. The problem was and is that you forget you have it. If I have to remember to bring a PocketFlo device along with me in order to record and then stream my TV shows to the iPad, I just lost whatever cool efficiency the iPad allows in the first place.

Mobile video -- on demand and carefully targeted -- is clearly on the rise. Mobile TV on the other hand struggle to prove its case. Decades after the Sony Watchman failed to catch on, we are still wondering if there is a place for TV as we know it everywhere.

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