(See update below.)
I alluded in my post yesterday about Sprint’s EV-DO launch that there had been a brief article in the local paper yesterday about the launch of Mobile ESPN, since Austin was one of the 4 markets it soft launched in today. The only notable piece of information was the price of the phone — put at $500. Like Rafat at MocoNews, I found it a little hard to believe, so I went to Best Buy and checked it out for myself today:
Yes, it is indeed $500 — I’m hard pressed to think of any other phone sold by a US carrier that’s aimed at the mass market, not the enterprise market, that costs so much. It’s a lot to ask of potential customers, and I’ve got a feeling it’s a deal-killer, despite the saleswoman’s prediction that “everybody’s going to want one for Christmas”.
Update: A Mobile ESPN exec emailed Rafat to defend the price, basically saying “well, it’s a nice phone” and that there’s a $100 rebate on it. As I said in comments over there, it’s still markedly more expensive than similarly equipped EV-DO phones from other carriers.
The ESPN Phone Costs $500
Wow, so this is true…Mobile ESPN, the MVNO service launched in four test cities today, is retailing its Sanyo handset for $500, something which I expressed doubts on earlier. Carlo Longino, who lives in Austin, one of the test markets, went down to B…
Sometimes you just have to scratch your head and ask, “what were they thinking?” If it does come to pass then the same people shelling out $500 for the handset will be the same target audience willing to spend $2.50 for a song. Not a whole many in my estimation. Of course time will tell…
They are just establishing the brand now. Think of all those people who pay $1500 for superbowl tickets and buy sports memorabilia. Also, it is the content you put on it - what is ESPN can beam the games live, they have the TV contract to broadcast games for baseball, NBA, NFL, etc.. (probably the technology is not there yet).
I am not sure that they want a whole a lot of buyers at this point, they want to first test this on a small group of wealthy sports enthusiasts. If they find that this audience is happy with the product they will knock it down to $200 or so and people will run to get, becuase there is a $300 drop!
Great marketing! Go ESPN!
What a rip-off. Wait a month or two until Amp’d Mobile comes out, they’ll have ESPN content on their phone anyway and it will cost more like $100 for the phone.