Here’s what got the RCR Wireless News editorial staff talking at the water cooler last week:
Mobile ESPN is out of the game. Who knew ESPN stood for Eliminate Service Plan Now?
Although it wasn’t entirely unexpected, it’s still surprising that Mobile ESPN was K.O.’ed so soon. Worse, Mobile ESPN was running advertisements for its service as late as Sept. 24 (the company stopped selling its service Sept. 28). The Mobile ESPN TV commercials ran during NFL football games, and featured Seattle Seahawks’ Shaun Alexander slipping and falling-and then getting a call on his ESPN mobile phone immediately afterwards alerting him to the news that he fell. Ironically, last week the Seahawks said Alexander has a foot fracture and will be out for the next few weeks.
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Speaking of eerie predictions: We said in a recent Hedgehogging column that Catherine Zeta-Jones just isn’t cutting it as T-Mobile USA’s spokeswoman anymore, especially since the rest of the nation’s wireless carriers are getting more and more creative in their ad campaigns. Word now is that T-Mobile USA will phase Zeta-Jones out over the next year, when her contract expires. T-Mobile USA said instead that it’s going for a “man on the street” feel for its advertising. But isn’t that what Verizon Wireless, Cingular Wireless and Sprint Nextel already are doing? T-Mobile representatives were not immediately available to comment on Zeta-Jones’ status.
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The latest MVNO out there is Red Pocket Mobile, which is targeting Chinese-Americans (not South Korean-Americans, like Helio). Ironically, Red Pocket launched the day before Mobile ESPN flamed out. “Yes, Simba, but let me explain. When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so we are all connected in the great Circle of Life.”
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So Fossil is teaming with Sony Ericsson for a mobile watch. Does anyone remember the Swatch wireless watch? Or Microsoft’s plans for a wireless watch? To date, only Dick Tracy has been able to successfully wear a wireless watch without looking silly. And he’s not real. But maybe this time will be different.
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China must be the new land of opportunity because where else in the world could a wireless carrier come out with a similar product, the RedBerry (as opposed to the BlackBerry, but you already knew that) targeting the same market-and not be drowning in a river of lawsuits?
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We never thought we’d be wishing for another acronym in wireless, but the word “femtocells” (fem-toe-cells? fem-too-cells?) has pushed us over the edge. Femtocells are tiny base stations you can install in your home.
