While the year is still young, you could make a fair argument that ESPN’s mobile service is likely to be remembered as one of the biggest bombs of 2006. Witness: the handset compatible with the service, the Sanyo MVP, has seen its price fall from $500 at the time of the trial launch in November, all the way down to $99 at the start of baseball’s regular season.
The main problem with the ESPN Mobile phone is cost — it requires users to switch to Sprint, and to purchase the Sanyo handset and expensive calling plans (none of which feature unlimited calls or data.) Is the ability to watch Sportscenter on your phone worth close to $500 when it’s all tallied? Add to that the fact that the ESPN mobile virtual network operator restricts Web access to ESPN-approved sites. And while the interface has impressed many reviewers, the phone doesn’t really offer anything all that out-of-the-ordinary. Sports scores are available from the Internet, which many people can get through their cell phones these days for a cost of around $6 a month.
While sales figures haven’t come in, Will Leitch of the sports blog Deadspin took an informal poll of how many readers owned — or knew someone who owned — the phone, and only got back one email in the affirmative.
Related:
Earning his wings, The ball buster, Science? Or fiction?, More 
- Earning his wings
Delroy Lindo is only 6’3”, but he plays a lot bigger on screen.
- The ball buster
You could make a convincing argument, particularly if you’re under 30, that John C. McGinley is better known for his role in Office Space than his role in Platoon.
- Science? Or fiction?
“It’s not an exact science,” Dr. Bishop says. His wise-ass son Peter interjects: “It’s not even science.”
- A bug in your ear
Back in the summer of 2004, John J. McCauley III was out for a hike with some friends in the woods of his native Rhode Island.
- Wilco | Wilco (The Album)
The cover photo of a camel wearing a party hat on a terrace is a clue: after nearly a decade of fighting Jeff Tweedy and Wilco have lightened up.
- Rising stars
Toward the end of Phoenix's long set at the Paradise Wednesday night, the Versailles band busted out "Love like a Sunset," a nearly eight-minute, mostly instrumental song from their new Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.
- 2009: The year in Phoenix blog posts
Our most popular blog posts from 2009
- Love us, don't leave us
Let’s skip the sugarcoating. Boston can be a tricky place.
- Daytrippers
In the cold light of objectivity, it’s hard to call 24 a “good” show.
- The goggles do nothing
On July 25th, The Simpsons Movie will hit theatres.
- Guest lists
What small, private lists like this remind us is that big, honking institutional lists are largely fictions, mirages of a consensus that no longer exists, if it ever really did in the first place.
- Less
Topics:
Gadgets
, Will Leitch, Deadspin.com
