Mobile digital broadcasts launch October 20 in Japan

After a lot of delays it seems that Mobile Broadcasting, Japan's first provider of digital terrestrial TV for mobile devices, is finally launching their service on October 20. They've already stuffed journalists into buses for mammoth TV-watching roadtrips to prove that the reception is OK; now, it's time to see what the gadgets are like. On the evidence at their launch event, we're a little lukewarm; the Sharp and Toshiba TVs that'll be available initially will cost Y60,000-Y70,000 ($540-$630), and though they're pitched as "AV players" recording is to SD memory card rather than hard disk, which puts something of a crimp in the amount of video you'll be able to carry around. Cellphones with TV receivers, for which prototypes are beginning to surface, should show up around 2006. (More products at the company site.) Mobile Broadcasting's next step is expansion from Japan to the rest of Southeast Asia and thence to America, which, given that they have the backing of seemingly every major Japanese corporation, may not be out of the question. We'd suggest they think up a different service name than "MobaHO!" before they get to that point, however.