The Bobcat Nation

Outside of the perpetually unfortunate fact that there isn't much service on this network in Montana, what do you guys think about the new phone/wireless data offering that ESPN has out? For full disclosure, I don't work for ESPN, but I work for a company that is involved in this offering (but I don't get any discounts or any other good perks).

This is the initial rollout of the product online, and it will be available in virtually all Best Buy stores soon. It sounds like their major marketing push will begin in February of next year.

As most of us are bona fide sports nuts and most of us have jobs (as it isn't cheap), we are essentially the prime demographic for this product. Is this the kind of thing that you would go crazy for, or is it just another gadget that you could take or leave?

I'm asking this exclusively out of personal curiosity purposes -- this isn't part of a marketing survey or anything. I have no connections at all to the marketing arm of this project.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/mobile/blast

In a word, I'm skeptical.

Perhaps it's the neverending hyperbole and overexaggeration, perhaps it is the "ESPN" on the phone.

I'm not sure it'll come off as advertised. The US cell phone structure is such that agonizingly slow transfer rates are realized--somewhere just above dial-up, if I'm not mistaken. In Japan and Korea, on the other hand, bandwidth for cell phones is very high--they've been watching HDTV on their phones for years, whereas it's a very new technology for the US market.

It's an interesting toy, but I'm not buying.