Cell phone sellers optimistic that tiny TVs will bring in big bucks.

Byline: Lewis Taylor The Register-Guard

During the Super Bowl, one of the most heavily hyped products was the TV phone - a cell phone that can play sports highlights, news, weather and entertainment clips, plus scenes from this week's "CSI Miami."

Sprint and Verizon trumpeted their video-ready phones, hoping viewers would see the need for a tiny screen one-sixtieth the size of the giant flat panel set they just purchased to watch the Super Bowl.

Even ESPN got in the game, unveiling its signature phone and Pro Sports video package, which promises to give glassy-eyed, trivia-spewing sports junkies even more stats to chew on.

Cell phone companies assumed this Dick Tracy-like technology would be a huge hit.

"Entertainment fit for your pocket," Verizon promised.

"Watch, listen, play and do at the speed of life," Sprint countered.

"The eighth wonder of the world," ESPN announced.

Meanwhile, at a Super Bowl party somewhere in Eugene, at least one non-sports-loving wife offered her own conclusion.

"That's a really dumb idea," she said. "Who wants to watch TV on a phone?"

Whether or not this technology will take depends on whom you ask.

At Best Buy in Springfield, the exclusive provider of the ESPN phone and the carrier of two other video-ready Sprint phones, interest in TV phones was running high, manager Shawn Robertson said. Immediately after the Super Bowl, the store sold a pair of ESPN phones and was fielding inquiries from sports junkies.

"I would definitely say the ability to watch TV on cell phones is going to take off," Robertson said. "People are on the go more than they used to be."

Robertson says the current crop of TV phones appears to be more popular among men but believes that as the technology progresses, the devices will become appealing to women.

The Wall Street Journal reported that only 1 percent of the nation's 200 million cell phone subscribers use mobile video, but that number is expected to increase.

For now, the phones don't offer the same kinds of full-length programming available for home TV sets, but Robertson envisions a day when soccer moms will tune into soap operas and daytime talk shows while on the go, and business travelers will dial up movies and other programming to watch in airports and on long plane rides.

Other local cell phone retailers were equally optimistic.

One Sprint store manager reported that he was getting lots of post-game inquiries about Sprint's Power Vision service, which allows up to eight channels of video content.

The phone giant's "crime deterrent" Super Bowl commercial, which featured a man throwing his video phone at another man's head, was an audience favorite on Web logs and Internet sites.

But at the local malls, an informal poll of shoppers - most of them carrying old-fashioned, 2005 phones - revealed mixed feelings about the latest cell phone technology.

"They look pretty cool, but I don't know how necessary they are," said Nick Helget, 24, of Lebanon.

Helget, who carries an LG flip-phone, said he had watched episodes of "Family Guy" on a friend's high-powered cell, but couldn't imagine himself buying a video-equipped phone.

Others balked at the high price tag. Most models sell for about $200 and carry a monthly service charge of about $65.

"I can't see why anybody would want to spend that kind of dough," said Curt Bodenstab, 49, of Cottage Grove.

"If I'm going to watch TV, I'll watch it at home," added Bodenstab's daughter Cassy, 20.

Until cell phone companies can find a way to make video programming desirable to consumers such as Bodenstab, sports fans will probably be the primary audience, Robertson said.

"There are so many die-hard sports fans out there," he said, clutching an ESPN phone in his hands. "This phone is definitely tailored to fit their needs."

Offering a demonstration of the new device, Robertson clicked on a University of Oregon icon and pulled up a story on the NFL prospects of former UO defensive tackle Haloti Ngati.

Then Robertson searched for an interview with Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander, skimmed the stories of the day and downloaded a video clip with news on the arraignment of embattled Phoenix Coyotes hockey coach Rick Tocchet.

"All your hot sports stories are right here," he said. "This is going to end up being a huge phone for us."