Disney Mobile to cease operations 12/31/07

[crazy4wdw]

This isn't much of a shock!

Disney Mobile has announced that it will cease its wireless operations as of December 31, 2007. It has been our privilege to serve as your wireless service provider and we want to thank you for your support of Disney Mobile.

We will continue to provide voice, messaging and the Family Center services through December 31, 2007. In addition, billing and care support will be available during that time. As of September 27, 2007, content and applications will no longer be available for purchase.

The Disney Mobile web site will remain in operation to service our existing customers through December 31, 2007.

 

[Another Voice]

Dear Disney:

To make money:

1) - Produce good movies
2) - Refresh the parks and keep them clean
3) - Create great characters that childern want to have as friends.

and most important

4) - Stop all this other stupid stuff that just wastes money.


Hugs and hearts,

AV

 

[mitros]

Dear Disney:

To make money:

1) - Produce good movies
2) - Refresh the parks and keep them clean
3) - Create great characters that childern want to have as friends.

and most important

4) - Stop all this other stupid stuff that just wastes money.


Hugs and hearts,

AV

, as usual, AV.....

 

[minnie61650]

Dear Disney:

To make money:

1) - Produce good movies
2) - Refresh the parks and keep them clean
3) - Create great characters that childern want to have as friends.

and most important

4) - Stop all this other stupid stuff that just wastes money.


Hugs and hearts,

AV

ITA

 

[rascalmom]

Dear Disney:

To make money:

1) - Produce good movies
2) - Refresh the parks and keep them clean
3) - Create great characters that childern want to have as friends.

and most important

4) - Stop all this other stupid stuff that just wastes money.


Hugs and hearts,

AV

What a brilliant idea!

 

[jimmytammy]

You know, there has been a lot of things Disney has done throught the years that didnt make sense at the time, but became a major part of what they are today. Take for example theme parks. Everyone thought Walt lost his mind when he decided to build Disneyland, but look at where it took the company.

But I felt from the start that the phone business was stretching it a bit far. Everybody and his brother is in it, and the Disney name alone wasnt going to merit many folks switching subsribers.

Word to Disney Co., this from a fan and stockholder...stick with what you know, Entertainment.

 

[dismorgh]

Dear Disney:

To make money:

1) - Produce good movies
2) - Refresh the parks and keep them clean
3) - Create great characters that childern want to have as friends.

and most important

4) - Stop all this other stupid stuff that just wastes money.


Hugs and hearts,

AV

Absolutely!

 

[GrimGhost]

Dear Disney:

To make money:

1) - Produce good movies
2) - Refresh the parks and keep them clean
3) - Create great characters that childern want to have as friends.

and most important

4) - Stop all this other stupid stuff that just wastes money.


Hugs and hearts,

AV

It IS that simple.

 

[MBELSANTI]

I found it interesting that in the Fall edition of DVC Vacation Magic magazine, that there is an add for a special edition Steamboat Willie phone through Disney Mobile. What's up with that?? If they are cancelling it, then why still advertise?

 

[wdw4us2]

Dear Disney:

To make money:

1) - Produce good movies
2) - Refresh the parks and keep them clean
3) - Create great characters that childern want to have as friends.

and most important

4) - Stop all this other stupid stuff that just wastes money.


Hugs and hearts,

AV

Why can't you have Iger's job? We wouldn't have to deal with these continuous money losing ideas.

 

[AllisonG]

I say we all write AV's letter in many copies to Disney Corp. and see what happens.
I know, I'm dreaming. It just feels like I should do something.
Enjoyed the letter Av, thanks!

 

[mla973]

I agree with AV.

 

[BatDisney]

Walt was a pioneer. Kinda like Star Fleet - going where no man has gone before. To say that all the Disney company should do is what they do best goes against everything that Walt was trying to do more than any one thing he ever did. What does EPCOT mean? EXperimental PROTOtype Community of TOMORROW. That entire concept looks to the furture. This is from the book "Walt Disney - Famous Quotes" Page 53

"We don't presume to know all the answers. In fact, we're counting on the cooperation of American Industry to provide their best thinking during the planning and creation of our Experimental Prototype Community of TOMORROW. And most impotant of all, when EPCOT has become a reality and we find the need for technologies that don't even exist today, it's our hope that EPCOT will stimulate American Industry to devlop new solutions that wll meet the needs of people expressed right here in this experimental community."

Do you really think Walt would have not done this - if he had the chance? Very much the opposite. I think we'd still be trying if he was here.

page 55
"Get in. Not choose but get in. Be a part of it and then move up. I've always had that feeling about things. And it upsets me so much when people want to get into something but they're too damn choosy about what they want to do. Get in while you have a chance to at least look and see and out of it may come something."

page 18
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible"

Page 64
"I believe in being an innovator"

page 55
"All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obsticles have strengthened me"

Are any of you aware of what happened on the day that Disneyland opened? Walt referred to it as "Black Sunday." The crowds were huge - WAY larger than expected - there were almost no trash cans - Walt did not want trash in his park, so trash cans were not high on the list - IT WAS so HOT - that the tar on the "streets" MELTED. Ladies - who almost all wore heels in those days - found their high heels stuck in the tar in the streets as those pointy things sunk into the melted black surface.

So - AV - I gotta disagree.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

As long as we talk about Walt's quotes,
here are other Disney quotes that seem to be ignored in today's Disney Company.


"Disneyland is a work of love. We didn't go into Disneyland just with the idea of making money."

"Disneyland is the star, everything else is in the supporting role."

"I have no use for people who throw their weight around as celebrities, or for those who fawn over you just because you are famous."

"We allow no geniuses around our Studio."

"You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you."

"You reach a point where you don't work for money."

 

[YoHo]

Walt was a pioneer. Kinda like Star Fleet - going where no man has gone before. To say that all the Disney company should do is what they do best goes against everything that Walt was trying to do more than any one thing he ever did. What does EPCOT mean? EXperimental PROTOtype Community of TOMORROW. That entire concept looks to the furture. This is from the book "Walt Disney - Famous Quotes" Page 53

"We don't presume to know all the answers. In fact, we're counting on the cooperation of American Industry to provide their best thinking during the planning and creation of our Experimental Prototype Community of TOMORROW. And most impotant of all, when EPCOT has become a reality and we find the need for technologies that don't even exist today, it's our hope that EPCOT will stimulate American Industry to devlop new solutions that wll meet the needs of people expressed right here in this experimental community."

Do you really think Walt would have not done this - if he had the chance? Very much the opposite. I think we'd still be trying if he was here.

page 55
"Get in. Not choose but get in. Be a part of it and then move up. I've always had that feeling about things. And it upsets me so much when people want to get into something but they're too damn choosy about what they want to do. Get in while you have a chance to at least look and see and out of it may come something."

page 18
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible"

Page 64
"I believe in being an innovator"

page 55
"All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obsticles have strengthened me"

Are any of you aware of what happened on the day that Disneyland opened? Walt referred to it as "Black Sunday." The crowds were huge - WAY larger than expected - there were almost no trash cans - Walt did not want trash in his park, so trash cans were not high on the list - IT WAS so HOT - that the tar on the "streets" MELTED. Ladies - who almost all wore heels in those days - found their high heels stuck in the tar in the streets as those pointy things sunk into the melted black surface.

So - AV - I gotta disagree.

Are you really equating the personal conviction and creativity that proposed and pushed for The multiplane camera, Full length feature animation,Nature documentaries, Disneyland, the World's Fair attraction and E.P.C.O.T. With Cell phone service branding? Seriously?

 

[DancingBear]

Iger wasn't trying to "do the impossible". Disney just stuck their name and a couple of features on a cell phone and rented Sprint's towers.

 

[Another Voice]

Iger was trying to do the impossible - turn a profit!

Name a single Disney "high tech" project that's done anything except loose hundreds of millions of dollars: GO.com, Movies.com, the self-destructing DVDs they sold, the download service to the set-top boxes they tried to get going, the Internet-based movie download service, all the "high tech" promises they made at the parks like being able to see the PhotoPass pictures on your hotel room TV, ESPN Mobile and the whole ESPN Mobile Channel (used only by bookies), the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' on-line game, Virtual Magic Kingdom...on and on and on.

There's a difference between being innovative to expand the business and heaving money at the latest fashions in hopes of making a quick buck. Disney isn't in any of these new fields because they think they can do a better job there, they jump onto the bandwagons because Disney thinks they can make easy money.

 

[BatDisney]

Are you really equating the personal conviction and creativity that proposed and pushed for The multiplane camera, Full length feature animation,Nature documentaries, Disneyland, the World's Fair attraction and E.P.C.O.T. With Cell phone service branding? Seriously?

Yes! The service was devloped to help families stay in touch with each other - help parents know where their children are - and help parents control the over-use of a cell phone. A child could be located if they were taken with the cell phone in their pocket.

Your letter tells the disney company to stick to what they do best - don't try anything else. My point is they had to step out in unknown territory - and by trial and error - become the best.

They tried it - there were too many obsticles to over come - and too much competition. My point is - the reason all those thing exist is beacuse Walt pushed for all those things you mentioned - he tried, experimented and improved those things and they succeeded. Not everything he did was a success. Without failure - you aren't trying enough. If everything you do in your life succeeds - then most likely you are only trying those things you know will work - and giving up on anything that has the least little challenge to it.

As long as you look at Disney Mobile as just "cell phone service branding" you won't see what we were really trying to do with it. I have had more people call in and say "why are you stopping this? I love it!" than I can count - and that's just me. We all have had people very sad that the service will be no more after New Year's Eve. I guess you just don't get it.

 

[cristen]

I guess you just don't get it.

 

[Another Voice]

When Walt did something original - it was becasue he knew he could create something really new out of it. He created stereo sound for movies because he wanted the theater experience to be like attending a concert hall; he turned theme parks into immeserive movies and stories; EPCOT would have taken what they had learned at the parks and apply it 'everyday' life' in a whole different setting.

But the only idea behind Disney Mobile was "there are bunch of stupid people out there who will buy a phone with a Disney sticker on it - we'll make lots of money". It was branding. My regular Sprint phone has a locating device on it - Disney did nothing but market an existing feature. Disney is a comfort, a lifestyle brand. It's a name that makes people feal warm and fuzzy due to past associations, even if the current product is nothing special. Disney Mobile was repackaging in exactly the same way the same can of peas can be a discount brand or cost a dollar more with a fancy label on it. Disney didn't spend any time, any resources, any effort to creating something that was new.

All the money went to ads and graphic design. That's not innoivation, that's a scam.