We review the history of mobile ESPN, a mobile that lasted only a year on the market due to low public interest. Undoubtedly, a mighty failure.
We have seen all kinds of ideas in the mobile phone market, some of them have succeeded and others have failed completely. Today we want to talk to you about one of those that belongs to this last category, the reason for failure It’s time to remember on mobile ESPN. This mobile is developed by ESPN company It lasted barely a year in the market Due to low buyer interest.
There were many who realized that the concept of this phone is not the best, but there is one character that stands out among all, Steve Jobs. “Your mobile is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard of.”He told George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN, in 2006. Mobile ESPN was a phone. Specially designed for sports lovers, with a service dedicated to providing up-to-date information. However, the development of the concept was not optimal, leading to the failure we remember today.
Mobile ESPN, a colossal failure
ESPN built its own mobile and it was a complete failure.
Mobile ESPN is a mobile phone launched in the market in 2005 by the ESPN Company, which owns a group of television channels specializing in sports. Your phone can’t be low, so it’s specially developed for that Sports fans are attracted. More precisely, Mobile ESPN was the name of the online service Show all sports informationFrom result updates to latest news.
The price to pay is not only the mobile phone, a Sanyo MVP that costs 300 dollars (about 290 euros), but also Monthly subscription to access ESPN Online servers. Depending on the type of subscription, monthly fees may apply From $65 (63 euros) Up to $225 (218 euros). Overall, ESPN’s mobile phone functions were too expensive to access, which is one of the reasons for the product’s limited success.
The public showed little interest in mobile ESPN, which It took less than a year to disappear from the market In fact, it is still one of the company’s failures today. As they indicate the vice, ESPN invested $150 million Projected, though, that it only reached 6% of sales as initially expected.
From the start, the concept of mobile ESPN didn’t appeal to many people. was one of them Steve Jobs himselfWho even told the President It was mobile “Stupidest idea ever“I’ve never heard of it. This happened at a meeting of the Disney board of directors in 2006, according to the book These guys have all the fun.
It wasn’t just people outside of ESPN who thought mobile would fail. Steve Bornstein, the director of the company at the time, also thought it was a stupid idea. Without a doubt, the project was A commercial failure for ESPN.
The mobile ESPN service had far fewer subscribers than expected
However, this was not due to online service errors or poor technology development. Everything worked fine on mobile ESPN, it was even Very modern if we consider that it was 2005.
However, apart from the high price, there was a problem that users wanted to enjoy the news service They had to use mobile phones selected by ESPN, as it met the hardware and battery needs of the online platform. Thus they had to do Stop using your mobile phone If they want to enjoy mobile ESPN.
Despite the failure, some managers like Bodenheimer see it as such today A great learning opportunity. You know, you get positive things from failure and there’s a lot to learn from this mobile ESPN.
