Peace Helio users! Catch ya later! Looks like you’re no longer the only wireless provider with a MySpace deal. Cingular Wireless and MySpace have teamed up letting its wireless customers access their profiles on the social-networking site while on the go. You and your 15-year-old punk girlfriend with pink highlights can check your profile, make comments, upload pictures from your phone and do all the things that make MySpace so entertaining.
Oh but wait. You thought this was going to be free didn’t you? A nice gesture from Cingular that helps out the younger demographic, right? Don’t think so. Be prepared to shell out $3 monthly for a mobile MySpace application for your cellphone. And don’t think it stops there. You know damn well they’ll be pushing phones to you now that are “MySpace compatible.”
Cingular to offer MySpace on cellphones [Yahoo! News]
I just don’t understand the necessity for a cell phone company to charge the additional 3 dollars in service for this feature. I am not saying that the feature is necessary but I don’t think there are any real costs for the service to Cingular. By making it a free addition, I feel like they would get additional customers and not lose the ones who are deterred by the three dollar charge. But I guess they have to milk every single service dry.
Amit
Any bets on how many people will pay $3/month? I actually think it’s gonna be at least 1 million. Given almost every teenage/colllege/single person is on myspace ;) Even with the inflated numbers of 130M users, you figure 50M active, that’s 2% penetration.
They are probably splitting 50/50 with the carrier on this, so 1.5M/month additional revenue streem, not bad..
I wonder if there will be a way to confirm their subscription numbers.
Anyone want to do an over under?
Peter, those are decent estimates. I would actually go under that. I would guess somewhere between half a million and a million subscribers. I think a million might be stretching it. I don’t see a million people subscribed to it simultaneously. Don’t forget, you’re estimate seems to assume that of those 50M active a majority of them are Cingular users. When in actuality, given the user base, there are quite a number that will be on T-Mobile or Sprint. Of those 50M active, I would guess that 10M-15M of thosea active users are on Cingular. In which case, 1M might be difficult to get.
For the past couple months a lot of bloggers have been saying that next year is the year for mobile given the release of MySpace Mobile and YouTube Mobile. I still don’t see it yet. A lot needs to change in order to make mobile as popular as all that. First and foremost, you gotta ask yourself, are consumers ready to _pay_ for something on their phones that they get for _free_ on the Internet? That’s a huge mental leap, in my mind.
I’ll take your over under. :)
I think that kid in the picture works at the Taco Del Mar I go to. ;-)
When “my”space becomes “every other persons” space, why would I want to pay $3 a month to keep tabs on it? Myspace is still a site that completely mystifies me. “Hey, I don’t know you but can you add me to your buddy list” followed by a “thanks for the ad” then come that strangers AD.
Jon