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MobiTV promises to change the way people use their handsets and how manufacturers and carriers approach phone design. Samsung has introduced the SGH-P900, the first T-DMB (Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) standard compatible handset for the European market. It's a phone with a twist.

Like competitive technology - (and Nokia pet project) DVB-H and Qualcom's MediaFLO, T-DMB (a favorite of Korea) broadcasts television signals separately from an operator's cellular network, freeing up bandwidth for other mobile operator content, with the promise of excellent quality video to boot.

Due for official launch at 3GSM in Barcelona, Spain next week, the tri-band GSM/GPRS with high-speed EDGE networking SGH-P900 promises to be available in time for the soccer (or, as the rest of the world says, football) World Cup in Germany during the second quarter (see top image).

The clamshell handset's 2.2-inch, 262,000 color and 240 x 320 pixel resolution screen really stands out. It rotates from vertical into landscape mode so as to appear just like a modern television. The position of the phone's 2 megapixel camera would seem to make it a natural for videoconferencing as well: At least you can get a good picture of yourself without any problem.

The smallish 3.6 x 1.9 x 1.02 inch (92 x 49 x 26 millimeter), 4.4 ounce (124 gram) SGH-P900 streams video - MPEG-4 - at 30 frames per second and offers a TV output jack. While television is the obvious selling point of this phone, Samsung doesn't skimp on other multimedia capabilities. There are hard buttons for MP3/AAC audio and a stereo FM radio. There's also Bluetooth add USB connectively options. Users can store their video and audio on microSD cards (now available up to 1 GB in capacity) and the SGH-P900's 128 MB of RAM.

Just like a VCR, you can record mobiTV programming received on your handset onto a memory card or internal memory and then view it later; either on the device's screen or a regular television set.

Since T-DMB hasn't gained traction in the North America, don't expect to see the SGH-P900 in the U.S. any time soon. If the big names behind the new Mobile Digital TV (DTV) Alliance, announced last month, have their way and DVB-H succeeds here, it would be in Samsung's interest to create versions of this TV-ready handset for other mobiTV standards, however.