iPhone to get FLO TV, needed a bigger battery to make it work

Qualcomm's FLO TV mobile digital television platform is finally coming to Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch, but through an extraordinary and most unusual vehicle: a popular slip cover / battery pack combo that also doubles the unit's battery life.

It's an already existing iPhone add-on called the Mophie Juice Pack -- a slip cover that fattens the iPhone and iPod Touch a bit, but also lets it run long enough for you to watch a movie in its entirety, and leave some juice left over for conversations. At CES this afternoon, FLO TV announced an agreement with Mophie to integrate its service into Juice Pack.

Typically, handheld devices that run FLO TV -- the brand name for MediaFLO service in the US -- have had to be equipped with a special antenna chip that enables reception of signals in the mostly metropolitan areas of the US where FLO TV is available. Last March, Qualcomm tested the efficacy of a MediaFLO receiver for iPhone that attaches to the unit through a direct cable, with the receiver itself about the size of...another iPhone. That went over about as well as tying it to a lead weight or a bowling ball.

But the next month, FLO TV President Bill Stone indicated his division would be exploring some type of add-on accessory or attachment for the iPhone. He gave no details, but reasonable speculation was something more fashionable of an add-on than a giant red box and a fat cable.

FLO TV is not the US government's standard of choice for mobile broadcasting right now. It's ATSC -- specifically, the mobile version of the ATSC standard currently used by US broadcasters to broadcast DTV. That's the easiest standard for local broadcasters to implement, because essentially the transmission equipment is already in place and even in use.

But FLO TV isn't a service for broadcasters. Rather, it uses brand names from broadcast and pay TV, such as NBC2Go and CBS Mobile, to provide smaller-package programming that cellular service providers can offer. Up until now, if you wanted an iPhone, you were locked out of FLO TV -- which AT&T currently sells to customers of its other phones for $10 per month.

Qualcomm's stroke of genius here may be finding a way of slipping that antenna chip into something iPhone customers were already purchasing anyway: fashionable slip covers with supplemental batteries included. FLO TV could have engineered one for itself, but why go to the trouble when it could partner with Mophie instead?

There's no details just yet as to pricing, though we expect there may be some demo units on the CES show floor this week. Up until today, Mophie sold its Juice Pack for iPod Touch, and the Juice Pack Air (pictured right) for iPhone 3G and 3G S, both for $79.95. Since the service does require a subscription commitment with AT&T, we would expect the carrier is also involved in some way; both AT&T and Best Buy have served as Mophie retailers.