Move Back
![FLO TV, 2009]()
Fresh on the market, the FLO TV Personal Television is a small, sleek device that hopes to do for television what the iPod did for music. Weighing just over 5 ounces, it promises to run for 5 hours without a charge. But will it become the next big thing? FLO's market research estimates that by 2013, 50 million Americans will have one. The question remains ... will couch potatoes actually leave their homes and open their wallets?![Cell Phones, 2007]()
Cell phone television was developed as manufacturers tried to invent ways to make cell phones more multi-functional. Pictured is a Modeo model, among the first cell phones that received broadcast video from wireless networks, rather then downloading short video clips. The TV network was separate from voice network—an approach that approximated radio, leaving the user with stuttering video.![Sony Airboard, 2001]()
The Sony Airboard combined both the Internet and television; it was marketed as a new type of device (one that never quite caught on) that Sony called a Web pad. Not quite small enough to fit in one's pocket, but marketed to be carried around wherever you went, the Airboard allowed simultaneous viewing of both Internet and TV content.![Sony Watchman, 1990]()
The Watchman, made famous by Dustin Hoffman's character in Rain Man, was a gadget that the company hoped would have the same appeal as Sony's popular Walkman. Sony released this smaller, color version in 1990; the first Watchman (already water-resistant!) came out in 1986.![Casio TV-1000, 1985]()
The TV-1000 was the first color-LCD pocket television from Casio, and it was priced cheaper than its Epson rival. Nicknamed the Pocketvision, the device ran on just five AA-size batteries.![Epson ET-10, 1984]()
The Epson ET-10 was the first commercial liquid-crystal pocket color TV. The technology was coined Televian and was marketed as easily portable. It ran on five AA batteries and offered an exciting (for 1984) car battery adaptor.Portable Television: Then and Now
Once clunky and heavy, it's hard to believe any of the portable televisions produced before 1990 were marketed as 'pocket-sized.'
Move Forward
- Portable Television: Then and Now
