Now Siemens has a digital TV phone

If you thought digital TV on your mobile was just a little wheeze cooked up by Nokia and O2 to flog Nokia's odd shaped widescreen 7700/7710 phones think again, for Siemens has unveiled its version of a digital TV phone.

Set to debut at CeBit the its phone includes DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast for Handheld Devices) compatibility, which in theory should mean that in a year or so's time (in the UK at least) it will pick up around half a dozen digital TV and about 30 digital radio channels.

Already huge in Japan and Korea, TV on a mobile phone is likely to be enormous in Europe, and we are utterly convinced that it is the killer application your mobile phone has been waiting for. Factor a hard disk into the phone for recording programmes (and also storing your fave video clips you may have transferred from a PC) and you really do have personal TV to go. The only other facts we know about the phone are that it has a VGA screen and stereo sound.

Almost as intriguing is a phone from Siemens home fixed line handset division - the Gigaset S35 WLAN. As its name suggests the phone can latch on to a wireless network, both at home and at a wi-fi hot spot, to make and receive VoIP telephone calls. It’ll also pull in your email and allow you to indulge in IM conversations.

Seems as if Siemens’ impending demise in the mobile market has been somewhat exaggerated.