Disney Mobile rises from ashes to invade Japan

by Chris Ziegler posted Jan 28th 2008 at 10:31AM

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again -- preferably on a different continent. That's the attitude Disney is taking with its Disney Mobile MVNO, shutting down its poorly-received US service and heading over to Japan where Softbank is serving up the necessary airwaves this time around. The target demo is decidedly different now, too -- whereas the US service was aimed at families with young kiddies, the Japanese rendition is targeting women in their 20s and 30s, seen as prime consumers of Disney content. The first handset to support Disney Mobile will be the DM001SH, a reworked version of Sharp's 821SH for Softbank that features 3G data, a 2 megapixel cam, 400 x 240 internal and 60 x 32 external displays, one-seg mobile TV, FeliCa, and no shortage of Mickey Mouse branding. All told, we'd say it's just a tad hotter than the carrier's now-deceased US offerings. Look for the service to launch March 1.

[Via Tech-On!]

Gallery: Disney Mobile rises from ashes to invade Japan

Filed under: Handsets, Sharp, GSM, HSDPA, UMTS, MVNOs, Softbank Mobile

Tags: clamshell, disney, disney mobile, DisneyMobile, dm001sh, flip, japan, mvno, sharp, softbank, softbank mobile, SoftbankMobile

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Ben @ Jan 28th 2008 1:53PM

I predict this will do well. Disney themed products have a much stronger following among adults in Japan compared to the US.

Neutral

NuShrike @ Jan 28th 2008 6:40PM

That's because they're adults in Japan and target merchandise for the demographic with the money unlike the USA. Same reason it's cartoons here and Anime there.

They'll make a killing just in phone charms there where in USA it's "huh? wtf are phone charms?"

Neutral

NuShrike @ Jan 29th 2008 4:55AM

This is actually quite humorous because Disney.com came out with this huge flash-based Disney Extreme site revamp right about the time the iPhone came out. Then they shut down Disney Mobile right after, missing the iPhone boat TWICE.

Let's hope the same people aren't running the new Mobile because hyper-competitive Japanese market is much less forgiving.