Multimedia Phones to Outsell TVs in 2008?

A new market research report from Multimedia Intelligence says multimedia phone shipments will overtake sales of television worldwide in 2008.

When most people think of mass media, one item that almost always comes to mind is that perennial favorite, the television. From the almost quaintly naïve days of “Uncle Miltie” and Jack Parr through contemporary abominations like a channel dedicated to an aquarium and Rock of Love, for generations television has been the mass medium of choice for many cultures, and a perpetual best-seller.

Would you believe it’s about to be eclipsed by the multimedia phone?

According to market research form Multimedia Intelligence, worldwide shipments of multimedia phones are on track to overtake worldwide shipments of televisions in 2008, totaling some 300 million units for the year.

The analysis defines a multimedia phone as a mobile phone with an integrated camera of 1 megapixel resolution or higher, MP3 and video playback, Java, USB, Bluetooth, a 16-bit color screen, QVGA screen resolution, along with WAP and MMS capabilities. If the definition of “multimedia phone” is lowered to any sort of camera, MP3 support, and video playback, 60 percent of handsets offered today would have basic multimedia capability—by 2011, Multimedia Intelligence expects that number to increase to 90 percent.

“Multimedia has become the term of the day as wireless service has expanded beyond voice to include a variety of communication, data, and entertainment services,” said Multimedia Intelligence’s chief research officer Frank Dickson, in a statement. “Handset manufacturers are racing to meet the consumer and operator demands for increasingly feature-rich multimedia handsets, while controlling handset cost and power consumption.”

Multimedia Intelligence flags integrated chipsets as a leading factor in moving multimedia and connectivity capabilities into a growing number of handsets, even low-end and entry-level units. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and USB connectivity are becoming more common, with IrDA being the only communications option seeing a net decline in market penetration.

And the face of multimedia will keep changing: by 2011, Multimedia Intelligence predicts that more than 200 million handsets will be sold with integrated touchscreen interfaces. Remember when touching the screen of a mass-media device evoked an unpleasant electrical shock? Ah, good times…good times.