I’ll also say second off Russ was at the show and I wasn’t so he has answers to some of my complaints for sure. Bring it on I say

So on the announcement:

– Disney has not laid out a long term differential advantage here. All of the things they announced — all of which are good, subject to comments below — are either already available or will be soon from competitors that have a bigger and bundled relationship with their customers. In a nutshell, if VZ or Sprint offered me the same features, why would I choose Disney when it’s part of my Quadruple Play offering? Said another way, there was no Disney in this announcement. No ties to all the things that would differentiate it. Even the logo on the phone is subtle, a nod to how uncool it would be for a teenager to have a Disney phone for sure. Still, where’s the link that makes this Disney? I’m going to bet that Disney ringtones are gratis, but what about exclusive video content, and other such things. I expected the cellphone to map to the Tamagachi craze, where my cell phone became something I used to keep my Toontown characters alive. Or how about a mobile wallet function that means I don’t have to use cash at any Disney locale? Or how about a link to the ESPN MVNO in some fashion. Where’s the stickiness of this offering?
– Some of the functionality requires the adult to change their phone subscription. If I am on a plan for two years, suddenly I cannot take part in the sexy features? I’m not sure that flies.
– No mention of pricing except to say it’s competitive. What’s that mean? I have seen per query LBS costs be extremely, and unattractively, expensive.
– The fancier features are going to totally break down in practice. For instance, what happens on Teachers Days where the kids are off and their cell phones won’t work because it’s Monday.
– My final thought is that I think Russ has drawn the right elements of what Disney has achieved out of this, but drawn a wrong conclusion. To achieve a family community of interest, this needs to reach far deeper into the runnings of a family to really be that sticky experience. I need to integrate with neighbors and schools and doctors,…I need to be alerted about baseball game cancellations and kids homework assignments….I need a lot more than merely tracking my kid and shutting off their phone. Disney has missed a big opportunity here methinks to really set out a true lead in the market that would be hard to beat. As it is, they’ve announced a future product with no pricing with features that everyone will have by year end.

So I’m annoyed that this is an evolutionary announcement. I think for MVNOs to succeed, they have to be revolutionary, and Disney missed that opportunity bcause this is an obvious evolutionary path that all the wireless companies are on. So they may acknowledge Power and Danger, but they left out the Long Term Viable Power Ranger!-danny