I spent a good half-hour or so playing with the Mobile ESPN phone from Sanyo at Best Buy last week and all I can say is that Research in Motion should have their people up in Waterloo talk to the ESPN people down in Bristol and figure out a way to come out with a new BlackBerry Mobile ESPN Edition device.
I am already thinking about carrying a second mobile device so that I can make calls while using the wireless services on the BlackBerry. When Mobile ESPN comes to Verizon I am sold.
If these two companies ever come together to offer Mobile ESPN service on a BlackBerry device I think that you would see existing sports loving BlackBerry users upgrading to whatever new units support the service faster than anything else RIM could add to the BlackBerry, less maybe digi-cams and an MP3 player.
My guess is the BlackBerry 8700 and 7130 series devices have all the horsepower they need to run Mobile ESPN for live updates. It probably wouldn’t take much to add the multimedia capabilities needed for streaming video.
It is inevitable that someone will eventually integrate Mobile ESPN into an existing smart-phone. Research in Motion may as well be first to do it.
I agree that the Mobile ESPN service is extraordinary, for anyone who is a sports fan (and I am a huge sports fan). I too played with one at Best Buy and came away impressed.
Once again, the real question is how much RIM wants to depart from its tried and true corporate services business and add some consumer-friendly features to any of their units.
I believe that even many corporate users would welcome these more exciting features, such as camera, music, ESPN, etc…just because someone is corporate, doesn’t mean they aren’t human, and doesn’t mean they don’t like some fun stuff on their mobile device.
Have you guys tried PocketDay Sports? I’ve been beta testing the latest version and although it doesn’t have Video, it has all the real-time updates as well as soon to be released standings, statistics, Golf and more.
Sharp looking phone!
One aspect I really liked about the ESPN phone is its user interface. I would say that the folks at ESPN mobile have done a great job using small screen real estate to accomplish their objective.
The navigation tool…the way so much data can be displayed on the small screen…it’s all very well thought out.
hey how do i get my espn phone unlocked? I didn’t have the phone for 6 months and they told me that the company want out of business and now i can use it as a sprint phone..just need the unlock code…