Apple's Cell Phone Gives TV Programmers New Possibilities

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Apple's Cell Phone Gives TV Programmers New Possibilities
by Wayne Friedman, Thursday, Jan 11, 2007 1:15 PM ET

In one instant digital-imaging minute, the well-being of some non-Apple cell phone manufacturers seems to be in some danger.

Consider juxtaposed images of the new iPhone next to the ads of those non-Apple mobile phones, and you can probably hear some executives gulping. Sadder still is that Apple competitors--Research in Motion Inc., which produces the BlackBerry phones, and Palm Inc.--saw their respective stock price fall sharply.

Oh yeah, Apple's stock was up to an all-time high.

Now comes the really interesting part. New devices usually mean new opportunity. What will TV marketers and TV program producers do now that Apple has set the bar so high--merging a phone with a video device, and with perhaps the most dominant portable music device?

If you thought that watching video could be boring on a small screen, Apple has just made it a little less so, with a three-and-a-half-inch screen that will be bigger than any other phone out there.

Surely, big changes are in the works. We are only one year removed from digesting the somewhat unbelievable news that you can watch your favorite prime-time show on your laptop or your iPod at the gym.

The reaction from TV and media companies will be obvious--they'll express optimism to be "anywhere and everywhere" their consumers are. The iPhone will seem to be just another device.

But it'll be much more. Put away the idea that the only thing you might want to watch is some video of a jiggling Christina Aguilera. You might also, for example, watch a TV episode on a small mobile device while waiting to board your plane

"Once you have the thing, you will want to carry it all the time," Mike McGuire, research director at Gartner Industry Advisory Services, told The Los Angeles Times.

Instead, kids might just think it's cool to watch a video at home on their new iPhones, while their parents fast-forward the DVR. Add a micro-video camera inserted into a second-generation iPhone, and they'll be able to shift back and forth from talking and seeing their friends while complaining about those early-round losers on "American Idol."

So iPhone users now can rag on their friends' sub state-of-the-art cell phones, as well as the most popular TV shows, more quickly than ever before.

The iPhone will bring new, heightened arrogance to a public already bombarded with entertainment and entertainment devices.

Sign me up.