The sky’s the limit
Mobile handset giant Nokia has announced the launch of Sky Mobile - a free app that allows you to watch Sky Spots content live on your phone and to remotely programme your Sky+ box to record stuff.
At first glance it looks pretty similar to the app announced for the iPhone last November, but we're still trying to confirm from Nokia whether this, too, is available only over Wi-Fi.
The first compatible handsets are the N97, N97 mini, 5800 XpressMusic, and 5530, with the 5230 and X6 versions following shortly. There's also a version offering non-live stuff for ten more handsets, but no sign of it on Maemo (N900) yet.
"Modern lifestyles have driven demand for great mobile content and services on-the-go, and it's great to know that this app will make a real difference to Nokia users," said Rupert Englander, head of services marketing at Nokia UK. "The partnership with Sky is just one of many that will bring everyday products and services to the pockets of our customers- all accessible quickly and easily through the Ovi Store."
We assume this is also a Wi-Fi only service, as 3G networks are already starting to strain under the weight of all the mobile Internet traffic they're having to accommodate. Adding the massive data requirements of live TV would surely be too much.
But the popularity of things like this and the iPhone app could accelerate the development and adoption of dedicated mobile TV networks like DVB-H or Qualcomm's FLO TV, which are designed to deal with this kind of high-bandwidth traffic and take the strain from the voice/data networks.
UPDATE - 13:20, 22 February 2010: We've just heard from Nokia that this app can be viewed over a 3G connection, so it will be interesting to see how the network copes and how prohibitive the data charges are.
