An anomaly

A year after Qualcomm invested $800 million on broadcasting TV signals to cell phones, watching TV on a handset has gained little traction in the minds of consumers.

Verizon remains the only carrier to offer Qualcomm's MediaFlo TV network. It offers four TV capable phones in a line-up of 40 handsets.

Though Verizon won't disclose stats, IDC Researcher Lewis Ward told Business Week it signed up tens of thousands of subscribers for the TV service so far, which costs an additional $15 a month for unlimited access.

Meanwhile, AT&T has delayed rolling out MediaFlo TV service twice without explanation.

AT&T and Sprint offer MobiTV, which transmits live but jittery feeds over phones. It has taken three years for the pair to build a userbase of 3 million.

All told, the number of those watching video on their phones hovers around 2 percent. Experts say mobile TV must be ad-supported and possibly free to truly take off with consumers.

In a statement made today, Steve Jobs pointed out another issue: the toll that streaming takes on the bandwidth of mobile phones. He added that Apple will not be incorporating Flash into iPhone handsets.