Goodbye Mobile ESPN

[Jon Westfall]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2006/09/28/mobileespn-against-the-ropes/' target='_blank'>http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2006/...inst-the-ropes/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Just minutes after we posted the article above, Disney officially dropped the ax on MobileESPN, and the happiest place on earth is just a little bit gloomier today. According to an open letter on the MobileESPN homepage, cellular service will stop as of December 21st, although all that great content that you handful of subscribers have come to enjoy day in and day out will soon be available through one of the major carriers. Meanwhile, existing customers are free to drop the service anytime before the end of the year without penaltly, and once your bills are all paid up, the soon-to-be-defunct MVNO will refund the full cost of your handset"</i><br /><br />Mobile ESPN, a very quickly dying idea, is officially over. The funny thing was, I remember the launch but I never seem to remember anyone buying the service, reviewing the service, or talking about the service. Oh wait... maybe that's more telling than funny :devilboy: Anyone here know anyone anywhere that used this service?

[whydidnt]

The only one I ever heard using the service is an announcer on ESPN radio. :D

I'm a pretty big sports junkie, but ESPN got a little full of themselves with this release. It's not like we can't get the information they were presenting some other way on our mobile phones --- except for the clips and really how exciting is it to see a postage stamp size highlight of homerun that is too blurry to really see anyway.

[Watti3460]

This is a pet peeve of mine concerning mobile services and the total greed of corporations jumping on a fad.

Remember when CNN made you pay for all there video content. Then a few years later they had to admit it was a totaly rip off and made it free. This was the Internet bubble you can chrage user for anything and they will pay for it because its on the internet and internet is hip and cool.

Same thing with mobile. Lets make a seperate moble portal and everyone will pay for it because cellphones are hip and cool.

If they had just made a simple service, top stories, scores they could have made it free and built a loyal fan base. Mobile *content* is NOT going to make anyone rich. These companies need to sell ONE single plan, which covers all online access regardless of platform. I do not want to pay 35 a month to the cell phone company to internet access, then 19.95 a month for ESPN online and then 9.95 a month for ESPN mobile access too.

[whydidnt]

This is a pet peeve of mine concerning mobile services and the total greed of corporations jumping on a fad...

If they had just made a simple service, top stories, scores they could have made it free and built a loyal fan base. Mobile *content* is NOT going to make anyone rich.

Excellent points. What if ESPN had given away the content as an incentive to get people to use their service? A way to differentiate their product in a market that doesn't offer a lot that is different. It's not like they aren't producing the content anyway - it's most likely being broadcast on one of their 10 channels. They may have found success by giving more for the same price, instead of trying to get a premium for information that is freely available elsewhere.

[ikesler]

I dream that one day, soon, all that content and the application itself might find its way to PPCPhone Edition devices. I would pay a fee for it in a minute.... but wouldn't carry a seperate device just for it.