据美联社4月1日报道，由于市场上这种安装了特别的信号接收器的新型手机数量不多，加之消费者提前抢购，如今各处商店的柜台里已难见其踪影。尽管日本几大手机运营商均表示新型手机颇受消费者欢迎，但都未透露具体的销售业绩。
在此之前，韩国、英国以及其他一些国家已经推出了类似的手机电视业务。美国一些地区的手机用户也已经享受到通过手机看电视的方便。1日正式推出的此项新型免费业务将通过电视转播站（而不是卫星）来传输图像，借助地面数字广播系统打入市场。它还将通过空中电波（而不是互联网）传输流式视频信号。
目前，日本的9000万手机用户已能通过手机玩游戏、下载音乐、发送电子邮件、浏览新闻、炒股、存储照片和上网冲浪。
Digital TV broadcasts for mobile phones equipped with special receivers began in Japan's major urban areas Saturday, following several months of test broadcasts.
But finding new phones in stores proved hard as eager consumers have already snapped up the limited number of handsets on the market. Japan's major mobile carriers say sales are good, but have not disclosed numbers.
Japan's mobile TV service is not the world's first — South Korea, Britain and several other nations offer a similar service, although with different technologies. Mobile users in some parts of the United States can also tap into digital broadcasts.
But the new service in Japan, which is free, will potentially reach the broadest market yet through the country's terrestrial digital broadcast system, which relays images through the air via TV towers, not satellites.
It also uses broadcasting air waves, rather than an Internet connection, to relay streaming video.
Japan's 90 million mobile phone users already play video games, download music files, exchange e-mail, read news, trade stocks, store digital photos and surf the Web — all on tiny handset screens half the size of a business card.
