Yesterday Nokia announced Lumia 520 and 720 for the Chinese market in a theme park in Beijing. We have reported the estimated date of availability as well as the retail price, so there's nothing really new here. One little thing about the announcement caught our attention: Lumia 720, the Lumia 720T customized for China Mobile's TD-SCDMA network, will come with a CMMB mobile TV module.
China Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting (CMMB) is a mobile television standard, mostly supported by China Mobile as a "killer feature" that defines the cellular carrier from its competitors. A phone with built-in CMMB reception module could snatch broadcasted TV programs over the air, without generating any data fee. Nokia has done various kinds of localization to adap to local markets. But adding a new hardware module to an existing phone model just for one carrier? I reckon that's something never happened before.
There is one major problem about CMMB-enabled Lumia 720. Over the years, China Mobile has been selling many CMMB phones. The brands and shapes may vary, but one thing is in common:
See that funny antenna protruding from the phone in the picture above? That's a must-have for all CMMB phones so far. How will Nokia stash that into Lumia 720's unibody design? Make the antenna as a separate part to be plugged into the audio port? Or simply drill a hole into the phone? Lumia 720T should be showing up in stores very soon. We will post some pictures for an answer when we get a real unit.
Source: WPDang
Reader comments
Lumia 720T for China Mobile sports CMMB mobile TV module
Well, that's really will stand it apart. I've seen many Chinese mobile phone with antenna before. But its the first time for European manufacturers
That would be an awesome feature in North America; I am curious as to why it hasn't happened yet. Probably the carriers not wanting to lose out on data profits.
I think so too. Carriers do not want that.
How about they add HD radio first.
I don't think the carriers would care about that...because it is not like they are capturing all this TV streaming profits anyway. They do not make extra profit from people congesting their network by streaming Netflix.
You can't stream live TV in the United States because the advertisement companies do not view PC, Mobile or Internet views as real people and other various content restrictions. When CBS is playing The Big Bang Theory...they get (made up values) 1 cent per person per commercial for all viewers on an OTA signle or cable box. All of a sudden if you watch that show on your phone the viewer instantly blacks out during all commercials only to wake up as soon as the show is back, so they are not counted. ;)
As soon as the companies say "It doesn't matter WHERE you watch the broadcast" we will instantly have live TV on our phones, all programs live for free on the internet, and all of our wildest TV dreams fulfilled.
In Canada we do have live tv on our phones via carriers, but it is a pay per view style of use ($5/day or $3/show) and it also uses their data extensively; essentially they are double dipping on one product. This is the revenue stream I was referring to then losing.
Yeah I used to be on Bell and their Bell TV service was nice until they didn't allow you to use wi-fi to watch anymore. I unsubscribed so fast when that happened.
I would guess the demand for that feature would be low in the USA. Something like 90% of Americans subscribe to cable or satellite TV which provides hundreds of channels, whereas OTA broadcasting provides maybe a dozen. Additionally, Americans are so dumb that they'd be placing even more calls in to support, thereby costing the carrier money. Furthermore, people here are so obsessed with how the phone looks that they'd never put a "funny" antenna on their "sexy" phones.
That would be great in North America.
the92playboy and dula714 make a good point here. The Noth American carriers have way too much power over which devices are allowed to exist in our society.
Their business interests should not be allowed to trump the interests of the people that allow them to exist.
I guess this is how our society works in North America. This is like the first time I am hearing that China has something cooler than North America.
They might use NFC or similar case with an antenna. 720 already has the 3 spots fro wireless charging, maybe those can be used for this as well.
It doesn't need to have antenna. Nokia has released T7 back in 2010 with this feature and i believe it didnät ahve antenna.
I would love to have a T.V. tuner incorporated into my ( USA ) mobile phone ( Lumia 920 ) !!
Agree that the carriers have too much control on how our hardware functions.
We get free TV streaming via data/carrier in Austria for five bucks (€) a month flat or 79 cents per 24h for all stations. Whatever you prefer... So i doubt it'd be a biggy here :)
Chinese CMMB device
http://download.fds-ncom.nokia.com/supportFiles/files/support/china/phon...
Nokia already has a device accessory called Nokia Mobile TV for DVB-T avilable for UK and certain countries. Its no big an issue for Nokia to redesign it to work for China. http://www.nokia.com/gb-en/support/product/nokia-mobile-tv-headset-dvb-h/
and also Nokia is first to bring Digital DAB radio accessories for Mobile devices and i own one of them.