Qualcomm’s Personal TV Now Available; Pricing Plans Are Nowhere To Be Found
Qualcomm’s FLO TV Personal Television, which provides a 3.5 inch screen for viewing some of your favorite programming while on the go, is now available in stores — however, the monthly service plans are no where to be found.
Currently, the device costs $250, including six months of free service, which the company explains represents $90 in savings. But what happens after the introductory period is not obvious, even after visiting Amazon.com (NSDQ: AMZN) and the FLO TV website. On Amazon, the fine print stipulates that after the six months, “your credit card will automatically be charged the then-current monthly subscription rate.”
It was only after calling customer support that we were able to get the pricing. According to a representative, you will be charged $14.99 starting in month seven. (A spokesperson also added later that that pricing could change based on new promotions.) At $14.99, it’s comparable to what Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) and AT&T (NYSE: T) have been charging, and is now more expensive than AT&T, which recently dropped the price to $10 a month. It’s also more expensive than FLO’s original quote of $9 a month for a three-year contract, which the representative said is no longer being offered.
The total cost of ownership for the first year is $340, which is fairly pricey, but it’s the lack transparency that will probably be the bigger problem in gaining consumer adoption.
The fundamental problem with FLO is that it offers something that no customers seems to want. It's a broadcast TV model in a world that's shifted to streaming. Broadcast is great for mass-market producers, like television production companies, and for carriers that would prefer to not deliver unique content to every device.
But it's hard to imagine people adjusting their mobile behavior to watch scheduled TV that happens to be delivered in mobile format–and paying this much for it.
I'm much more interested in mobile DTV, in which existing broadcast mechanisms in each market could deliver content to portable devices. As a broadcast medium without a DRM system, the mobile devices could easily act like DVRs. Qualcomm likely (?) has more programming than would be available in every market, but I haven't seen any evidence of this kind of demand.
I suspect Qualcomm will eventually simply sell the FLO spectrum to Verizon for a hefty sum for Verizon's LTE 700 MHz deployment.
I agree completely. I didn’t see any ” On Demand” programing. So, customers will still be forced to drop what they are doing to catch their show on tv. I think most people would still prefer to wait until they got home and catch it online at their convenience. It may start out pretty good so that people can show off their latest tech. I think the only thing that would keep this company going is the fact that they are making it an i phone ap.
Even so, I dont see Iphone users paying an extra 15 bucks a month for the service. $9.99 maybe at the most.