Proprietary Phones Are Out

Filed in archive Companies , Marketing , Phones on October 2, 2006

The Mobile ESPN service with cell phone and sports fan video and info feed is scheduled to die, less than a year after its birth due to disappointing sales. Despite heavy marketing, subscribers are estimated to only be in the "low five figures".

ESPN certainly gave it its best shot. I for one got tired of the flood of commercials on the cable channel.

The problem lie not with its concept. Branded phones and an ESPN mobile service will live another day. The downfall was the execution. I predicted its demise earlier this year due to its web and phone limitations. Consumer services cannot be delivered in a Proprietary and artificially limited package.