Report: Disney to Offer Mobile Phone Service in Japan

[disneytim]

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Disney has signed an agreement with Japanese telecom and Internet service provider Softbank to offer cellular phone service in Japan starting next spring. Disney will lease bandwith from Softbank and sell phones and services through its stores.

Disney launched its own cell phone service, Disney Mobile, in the U.S. last year, but announced recently that the service would be discontinued as of December 31, 2007.

Source: MarketWatch

[glendalais89]

Re: Report: Disney to Offer Mobile Phone Service in Japan

I'm not sure this is the best business decision.

Softbank is not exactly the largest Japanese mobile carrier. They're the third largest, after NTT DoCoMo, which has about 50% of the market, and au (KDDI), which has about 20-25%. I don't know, but it doesn't seem to me like a good way to enter the market.

Then there's the fact that Japanese preferences for Cell Phones tend to be radically different from the rest of the world, both in what they want with regards to design of the phones, and the features included. Hopefully, they take that into consideration when deciding what phones and features to offer.

And on a lighter note, for all he's worth, I honestly have no clue how Mickey can compete with THIS with regards to being cute and appealing to the families with young children demographic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=http:...?v=cZMSSsrr12M