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Goodbye MobileESPN

This MVNO had so much promise... but it will close its door by the end of the year. Instead, it will provide these services through another carrier.

I though sports-obsessed America would jump onto this service since it's basically the sports fan dream. I watch SportsCenter pretty religiously and the thought of being able to watch shows anywhere at anytime sounded beautiful.

Of course, I was turned off to the service's ugly phones. It's basically the same problem as Helio. MobileESPN phones were not pretty. Of course, I understand the slim pickings because what cell phone manufacturer would make a phone for a small market. Helio is interesting because it's half-owned by SK Telecom, which is the Korean telecom behemoth. However, only Pantech and the now defunct VK (two companies who showed a lot of SK Telecom love) provide phones for Helio. I mean.. if I was in the position of CEOs like Nokia and Motorola, I would say "no way" in providing phones for small MVNOs. The risk is too great, and development costs nowadays (especially for media phones) are very high.

I realize that this is not about social networking, but I thought it was interesting. Helio, on the other hand, better be banking on its partnership with MySpace. I wonder how many subscribers there are now. I also wonder what's going to happen when Cyworld enters the US mobile market.

posted by Koh @ 3:31 PM