ElectronicsWeekly posted an article today on mobile TV, asking “What is needed to make it fly?” After a moment or two, my cynical side answered, “an audience” and “a compelling reason” to watch live television on a phone.

I took a quick inventory of myself and others I’ve watched using cell phones during various design research projects. When we’re mobile, we’re usually active, which isn’t necessarily good for watching live TV on a small device. And there are times when we’re mobile but stationary — like at the doctor’s office, waiting for a movie to start, sitting on a plane — and mobile television might come in handy then.

But when this happens, I usually pull out some content I’ve prepared myself or bought from the iTunes Music Store or Amazon’s Unbox. I’ve seen others do the same with their iPods with video, iPhones, or other portable entertainment devices.

As expected, Apple’s special London press event was dedicated to the UK launch of the iPhone. With around one hundred journalists gathered at the company’s flagship Regent Street store, CEO Steve Jobs — joined by O2 UK boss Matthew Key (no surprise there) — gave full details of the device’s UK pricing and carrier details.

• The iPhone will go on sale in the UK on November the 9th (customers can pre-register their interest).
• UK price for the device is £269 (inc. tax)
• O2 will be the carrier, with Carphone Warehouse partnering for retail
• Tariffs will start at £35, which all include “unlimited” mobile data usage — 18 month contract
• No 3G, the UK iPhone uses EDGE for data, exactly the same as the U.S. version
• iTunes WiFi store comes to the UK by the end of the month

One more thing…

While almost all of the details above were pre-leaked, there was one surprise. UK iPhone customers will get free access to 7,000 public WiFi spots throughout the country — provided by The Cloud.

U.S. readers look away. UK readers rejoice.

Apple has sent out invitations for a special press event to be held next Tuesday at the company’s flagship store in London. The email carries the cryptic message “mum is no longer the word”, suggesting that a previously kept secret will be no more. Our guess, along with Reuters and just about every everybody else, is that Apple will reveal its plans for the UK launch of the iPhone, including carrier details and pricing.

Of course, “mum” may already no longer be the word, if the UK iPhone’s carrier turns out to Spanish Telefonica’s O2 , as everybody suspects it is. Why else would O2 CEO Peter Erskine be talking up Apple’s insistence on sharing call and data revenue with operators.

TechNewsWorld posted today about the “incredibly weak mobile Web experience” and asked “why mobile Web browsers are still so lame.” My answer: Today’s cell phones, with a few exceptions, are not information devices and should not be compared with the desktop experience.

I’d like to get away from the thinking that most of the cell phones today are information devices. They’re not. They’re phones that are Internet-enabled, so you can surf the Web.

I’d also like to get away from the thinking that the mobile Web experience should be like surfing the Web on our desktops or laptops. It’s not the same experience. It never will be. One is large, with at least a 12-inch display, and the other is tiny, with a match-book-sized screen.

What’s needed to improve the mobile Web experience, first and foremost, is a new cell phone that’s designed and development to meet the information — not just the phone — needs of an on-the-go society living in a broadband world. With the appropriate hardware, only then can we improve mobile browsing.