It really was! For those of us who were tech geeks back then it was always a gamble if the tech you were investing in was going to be compatible and last more than 6 months. It was exciting but also fun!!
Richard Ludwig I remember my mom having several gift certificates to a site called Amazon. She ended up using them out of fear that the company wouldn't be around long. Back then she wouldn't even dream of putting her credit card information online, not even for online banking.
The first things I ever bought online were plane tickets. This was sometime in the mid-90s. At the time, to buy a plane ticket, what you did was to schlep your butt down to a travel agency and wait in a long line to talk to an agent, who had this mysterious terminal that listed all the available flights and their ticket prices and could be used to make reservations. Then you'd carry out this extended negotiation with the agent: "Well, suppose I go on Thursday instead of Friday? What's available then?" "Well, there's one at 11:50 and one at 2:05..." Etc., etc. And the whole time, if you were like me, you were thinking "Man, if only they just let me use that magic terminal myself! It can't be that hard!" So then Thomas Cook/American Express Travel put up this crude website for making your own reservations, and, wow, basically they just let you use that terminal. It was a revelation to me. I gladly gave them my credit card number. It was horrifically insecure--I don't even think they were using HTTPS! You just sort of hoped nobody had thought of lifting your credit card information.
The fact of the matter is this was only about 2006/07. Not that long ago, but technology has progressed at such a rapid pace that it feels like forever ago.
Mom sends a strongly worded text, "I see you spending more time with your dad. I know this divorce is hard on you, but you are in my care right now and I want you home!"
Disney is extremely popular in Japan (to the point they turned Stitch into an anime) so it’s no surprise Disney Mobile is still around there. They also have their own music genre, D-pop
"3" is the name of a service provider in europe, mainly UK and Ireland, that's their logo showing so it's clearly a partnership rather than saying "it's the 3rd one"
I was at guest relations for this project. Still remember two of the customers very specifically. As well as a number of issues with the service that had easy fixes. And I was there until the last day. The best customer was this little girl that kept calling to get Hannah Montana’s phone number. She would pretend to be her and say she lost her phone. Always a pleasure to tell her we don’t have access to the information for celebrities. Yes, Miley Cyrus had a Disney Mobile account, but I have no idea if she actually used it.
I don't think the Motorola Razr was even sold where I live. Blackberrys wasn't sold here either. IMO the king(s) of the flip phones are Nokia N92, N93 and N93i. Those Nokia phones are smartphones so they had multitasking, downloadable apps & games, WiFi, 3G etc Fun fact: The first iPhone didn't have downloadable apps until 2008. It also didn't have multitasking or 3G connectivity etc.
@@Pasi123 Truth! The Razr was a terrible, flimsy phone that couldn't do much. However it was the most popular phone in the US. The first iPhones were a bit of a joke compared the phones across the globe, but Americans loved them and they ended up pushing the market in a direction. Personally I was a fan of Sony Ericsson (mostly the candy bars) until they started to stumble and was going to switch to Nokia but they started to stumble too.
Marketing success, lol. Yeah, sometimes companies try again in Japan and succeed... ...And then don’t bring it back here. There are a few Japanese cars that I like that don’t exist in the USA.
i mean it makes sense they are marketed to women. and to marketing companys what do women want pretty things so make them look pretty. id like to have one of them just because they look so cute
Jess I mean... popular? they're only active in the UK... compared to Vodafone and T-Mobile/Orange who have their own networks in multiple countries... or Lycamobile, doesn't have their own network but operates in almost all of Europe and outside of that
@@arnemaeschaelck5012 I don't know about other European countries, but Three has been active here in Italy too for many, many years. Also, I had the Disney Mobile 3 phone when I was a child. This video brings me back memories! :)
@@Marcus51090 No he didn't. He detested Michael Eisner. Big difference. Jobs gladly sold Pixar to Disney once Eisner left and even served on their board until he died. He actually had a pretty good relationship with Disney and Iger.
A few of your "person using mobile phone" B-roll shots show the T-Mobile Sidekick, which I worked on for a while (I spent a lot of time working on UI performance of the model at 5:47 ). That was an actually successful phone aimed at the youth market, and it's interesting to compare what they did to what Disney did. It seems like Disney was marketing primarily to parents, not to kids--it was just assumed that the kids would want a cell phone and the pitch was that the Disney service had the features that would make their parents OK with it. The Sidekick actually appealed to kids, though. It was a proto-smartphone that concentrated on various forms of text messaging, with a huge QWERTY keyboard, and there were all kinds of outre branded versions with celebrity names on them and such. There was a really cheap data plan and the killer app was an AIM client, so you could text all day long without getting hit with the huge charges that would accrue from SMS in the days before flat-rate SMS plans. That was what teenagers actually wanted (though I suppose their parents liked the lower bills).
Ah so you were at Danger? How did people react when Andy left to start working on what became Android? I hear lots of people left to go with him on that, but some stayed behind and got acquired by Microsoft to build the Kin.
@@jSyndeoMusic I was hired after Rubin left, worked mostly on the later models that had full-color screens and scalable fonts. The last and best ones were actually finished after the Microsoft acquisition--they'd wanted to kill everything immediately, but there were contractual obligations. I was in Massachusetts, in a small remote office, but we made full use of our own tech to communicate. And, yes, we eventually all got pulled into the Kin project. Everything that could possibly be wrong with that was; by the time we actually did any work on it, all the major design decisions had been made and it was too late to change anything. Microsoft really didn't want to deal with a dinky satellite office in Massachusetts, though, so we got jettisoned a few months before the phone's very brief release, and I witnessed the final disaster from a distance.
@BinkTinks I still miss two-thumb-typing on the Sidekick keyboard--for writing text, it was a better experience than anything you can do with a touchscreen. After the real Sidekick got killed, Samsung actually put out a "Sidekick 4G" which was a low-end Android slider phone with a vaguely similar keyboard, but it wasn't the same.
It's really neat to hear you folks talk about the production of the Sidekick! I never owned one or knew about it, but I might try to find a used one and see what I missed out on.
I remember my first cell phone. It was one of those legendary Nokias that could destroy a tank if dropped from high altitude and still keep working afterwards.
I saw you a few weeks ago at Epcot. You were under Space Ship Earth. I kept looking back at you. I told my friend I knew you from somewhere. The second I left the park I knew how I knew you. Great content!
Worth pointing out that Jobs was on the Board of Directors of Disney at the time and the largest shareholder at the company, which gives some credence to the idea that iPhone is linked to Disney Mobile’s demise. He did have a close relationship to Iger
Dohers Was that around the time of the Rokr? 🤣 Seriously though, I’m surprised there weren’t more Disney/Apple connections but Disney had a partnership with HP at the time.
@@MrDohers It's literally just an ad phone. That's what I don't get. The whole phone bases itself around the fact that you are a die hard ESPN ad and want to take in everything ESPN. Who wants that?
That's because the first iPhone was legendary for what it did for the market. However, nowadays iPhones are completely overpriced piles of garbage and dung.
Joshua Butt my iPhone 2G, it got some minor lcd damage (that gray blob on top), w a y older than my 8, and my 8 had so many board issues, I’m currently on my 3rd iPhone 8, no issues yet but the other 2 kept having WiFi and Bluetooth issues Ironically as soon as I typed “WiFi and”, Bluetooth showed up in my word suggestions so I guess Apple knows about it lol
More like on cue every time. The minute they get into "so why wasn't this successful? Welll..." Jobs. Basically Steve Jobs. If you have a question about phones, your answer will include Steve Jobs. When it comes to technological breakthroughs, the iPhone (and smartphones in general) was the biggest technological milestone that happened since we landed on the moon. Of course it's going to be relevant.
I REMEMBER SEEING THE DISNEY MOBILE AD ON TV BACK IN THE DSY WHEN I WAS LITTLE. THE ONE WITH THE FLIPPHONE THAT HAD PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN!! I thought i was never gonna see that again!! Nostalgia!!!
The Disney Mobile smartphones are mostly manufactured by Fujitsu(a Japanese brand) and can be bought for very cheap in Vietnam. It only costs around $20 for a secondhand phone
9:20 can't blame Disney completely as they were going on with what they thought were the correct choice at the time. They thought that making a heavily Disney designed phone would turn away potential customers that might thought that Disney phone look like toys. And let's be real, a heavily branded Disney flip phone would look like a toy that you can buy from toy shop, battery not included. Meanwhile, the reason Disney phone or rather smartphone today could work is because its kinda hard to make smartphone look like toys and very easy to make them fashionable. Heck, if I was born at the time, and Disney actually made a heavily branded flip phone, I might not buy it. Their smartphone however... It's a damned if they do and damned if they don't moment at the time.
Lets also not forget they owned a Hockey team and a Baseball team. Both they have sold now. Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
DisneyMobile was my second job out of high school. Most everyone who walked by the kiosk in Downtown Disney at Disneyland didn't want a phone plan but instead wanted the Disney themed accessories or sim cards for those traveling from overseas. The video is wrong saying that there was not a Disney themed phone... there was a "limited edition" Steamboat Willie phone we sold at a discount with a phone plan activation, otherwise it was $300 for the phone by itself in box. Most of those I sold were to Disney buffs who saw it as a future collectors item.
Wow that's really cool! I actually still have the steamboat willie one in my room pretty much brand new! My parents had gotten it for me back then but I only used it to play games once in a while because I was a dumb kid lol. I'm surprised I didn't scratch it up but I always kept it in the box when I wasn't using it. There's a few steamboat willie cartoons that came pre downloaded with it, the outside has a steamboat willie design, and there's disney ringtones and a game that came pre installed on it too! I was thinking about posting a video here on RUclips showing off the phone and its old content, I never knew it was rare but I still think it's pretty cool!
I worked for the Amp'd Mobile call center, and my BF worked for Helio. It was a wild time in the cell phone industry. It was fun to watch all the MVNOs fold in 2007.
@@Sarah_Gravydog316 disney actually did make a special edition phone for the disney mobile service. I still have the steamboat willie edition one from when I was a kid. It's still pretty much brand new since I only played games on it back then and would put it back in the box when I wasn't using it. Eventually one day I put it in the closet and forgot it was there for years. I just found it recently and was thinking about posting a video here showing the phone and content on it. It has disney ringtones, a steamboat willie theme, steamboat willie cartoons, and came with a pin.
Apps existed, but instead of the app stores being run by Apple and Google they were run by the carriers. There would be an app on your phone for the carrier to buy ringtones, games or anything else for your phone.
In Germany MVNOs went a totally different route, nearly all big retailers and especially the discount supermarkets have their own MVNO (Aldi Mobile,Lidl Mobil). They mostly offer cheap prepaid tariffs. You just pickup the SIM card at checkout aisle when you're shopping for groceries and register it online. And some are really popular I remember back when I was a teen nearly all my friends and their families had Aldi Mobile, because for just 2.99€ you would get unlimited calls and SMS to every other Aldi number. Other MVNOs here specialise in international calls for immigrants that want to call home.
basically yes. It's like, why get a RUclips phone, when i already have RUclips on my phone. the Disney phone was like a cheaper phone with less features, which is fine, but consumers always want more features & more upgrades
If they came back out with it again and make it like an iPhone or galaxy and can properly make it work I’d get one. Either that or work with apple and make an Disney themed iPhone
When your a kid back then and you waited for the "night hours" so you can start making all the texts and calls you want to your friends or girlfriends/boyfriends amd just talk and talk
EMBARQ is/was not an MVNO. It is/was a wireline phone company spun off by Sprint to offload their wireline business (what was left of United Telephone). I haven't been to any of their markets for so long that I don't know whether they're still in business.
An interesting fact you didn’t mention too was the fact that 2007, the year The iPhone came out, was also the year Steve Jobs became a part of the Disney Board of Directors after they acquired Pixar, so there’s a chance that it was also leverage from Jobs for Disney not to be competing with the iPhone directly/indirectly.
White Recluse because my house was on that was on the honor system, and on trust. I had no parental controls, but there were rules. I knew that if I broke the rules then I would be in trouble, so my parents never needed to do parental controls. When I went over their house I was subject to the parental controls, meaning my phone barely worked. I could text, talk and use a very very restricted amount of apps. Minecraft was blocked (which the 5 of us loved playing together), FNAF (another thing we would play together), RUclips (we would watch a lot of GameTheory together and a lot of RPG Let’s Plays, and then make our own theories together) etc etc etc.
Disney should give this another try, partner up with a company that makes low/mid range phones, let the phone company do all the phone things, hell they could even use the same phones that they already have, but let Disney handle all the looks aspect of the phone, take android and put a Disney skin on it. Go into settings and disable all possible options that allow for tracking and that type of stuff (company shouldn't be tracking kids), take the Play store and either get rid of it and add a Disney Play store, if the store can't be taken away, make a Disney curated version of the store, with either only Disney made games and apps or that plus Disney curated apps, with special attention put into not allowing any apps that track and save data and no advertisement, things can not be purchased from the phone directly if there are paid apps or in app purchases, then a adult connected phone needs to approve any purchases. There should be no advertisements because everything ON the phone would essentially be a big ad for Disney. Allow a Disney MCN only version of RUclips on the phone, no search feature and no linking to any outside the network content, so any suggestions or up next would be a Disney MCN content or if that's too restricting allow only RUclips kids on the phone, though I have no experience with RUclips kids so I have no idea how good it is at keeping children safe and not tracked, data collected or advertised to. Maybe even allow kids to earn Disney points that can be redeem at Disney stores or the parks when they play the provided games. This way Disney can earn money, the kid's family earns a 5-10% discount on a weeks stay at a Disney hotel while at the same time Disney makes money from the child's family paying for the stay at the hotel and going to the park or from simply buying merchandise. To avoid the possibility of this being seen as advertising to kids maybe the points are not visible to the kid at any point, only viewable on the parents phone.
You do know parents can use another Disney service to watch what kids do on computers to block websites and when to go to sleep right I forgot what its called
All the Disney park apps preloaded on my phone and already signed on? Sign me up. Also the more I think about it, also integrate magic band so you can use the touchpoints like the VIP tour guides where they just tap their phone
3 (Tre, Italian for three) is a phone provider in Italy. There was no Disney 2 or 1 because the f-ing phone provider is literally called 3 xD Confusion I know!
Ok, but Disney mobile could do pretty well today if they do it like they did in Japan. I'm sure a lot of parents would love to actually have some control over their children's phone usage, because it's pretty rampant nowadays.
I guess Disney and Globe got along pretty well. Here in the Philippines we have DisneyLife, through Globe. Pretty good selection of content for under $3 USD a month (p149). I wish it had more old content - I really want the old Wonderful World of Disney tv shows...
Huh. As a Filipino myself I was not aware we had Disney Mobile and DisneyLife, as I was already in the US that time when these came to be. I heard that one show- Legend of The Three Caballeros- was exclusive to DisneyLife there before it debuted in the US on Disney+.
I wanted to get that special Mickey Mouse limited edition phone that they offered. I tried to get it but since my credit was bad they declined even though I offered to pay full price for that phone. I wanted that phone so bad it was the only phone they offered that actally had full Disney branding on it and came with some really nice extras. To this day I look for an old copy on ebay for that phone but since it was a limited edition phone they are really hard to come by.
Disney mobile 3 is because 3 is a European network (it was one of the first 3G networks) Japan love all things Disney - so having a Disney themed phone was a hit...i lived there for 8 years and it was mostly teenage girls that went after the Disney phones
Every single paper I've had a choice of topic on for my MBA has been about Disney but somehow I did not know about/remember this. Your content is amazing!!
I love these videos about mobile phones because it just shows how far we have come with mobile phones. We always take our phones for granted but we need to remember just how amazing they are, we are holding a super computer in our hands wherever we go, our phones can do anything and everything and it truly is amazing, espicially when you think that just 10 to 15 years ago we had nothing like what we have today, espicially on our mobile phones. Awesome video man! Subbed!
Micah Ott because Disneyland and Walt Disney World are registered ‘no-fly zones’ which means there will never be aircraft above it that will require blinking lights
Oliver Caveney that’s not true. It’s still required. Most buildings over 200ft need it. Every building at wdw is under it by barley a few inches or feet but they get away with it
@@ocaveney in his one video he said that they still had to have lights above the hotel or something like that and said he would clarify and explain when he found out
I would love for you to make a follow up video about disneys partnership with circle, which is Parental Control and Internet control for homes. Its a standalone product but it is also on many different individual products like routers.
#nostalgic I remember being a young lad who wanted any and every phone that came to my attention. Now fast forward 17 years later and I'm selling phones myself.
I've never heard anyone call them the aughts, most people call them the noughties. Though they're both a lot more specific than just "the two thousands".
Always fun and interesting information! I love the idea of them trying new businesses and markets. But interesting to hear about the mobile phone business.
![Twenty One Pilots - “The Line” (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/E2Rj2gQAyPA/mqdefault.jpg)
The 00's really were the wild west of consumer technology.
It really was! For those of us who were tech geeks back then it was always a gamble if the tech you were investing in was going to be compatible and last more than 6 months. It was exciting but also fun!!
Richard Ludwig I remember my mom having several gift certificates to a site called Amazon. She ended up using them out of fear that the company wouldn't be around long. Back then she wouldn't even dream of putting her credit card information online, not even for online banking.
Those days were amazing! The only downside was the slow speeds.
The first things I ever bought online were plane tickets. This was sometime in the mid-90s. At the time, to buy a plane ticket, what you did was to schlep your butt down to a travel agency and wait in a long line to talk to an agent, who had this mysterious terminal that listed all the available flights and their ticket prices and could be used to make reservations. Then you'd carry out this extended negotiation with the agent: "Well, suppose I go on Thursday instead of Friday? What's available then?" "Well, there's one at 11:50 and one at 2:05..." Etc., etc. And the whole time, if you were like me, you were thinking "Man, if only they just let me use that magic terminal myself! It can't be that hard!"
So then Thomas Cook/American Express Travel put up this crude website for making your own reservations, and, wow, basically they just let you use that terminal. It was a revelation to me. I gladly gave them my credit card number. It was horrifically insecure--I don't even think they were using HTTPS! You just sort of hoped nobody had thought of lifting your credit card information.
@@UmmYeahOk We had a 10/10mbps fiber back in 2006 :P
Disney went into the cell phone industry. Because of course, they did. Why am I only hearing about this, now?!
Because it was probably before you were born
@@camtwan1 idon.t now abot you. But I was borne in the yeat 1902
I never heard of it and I was born in 1980 lol
@@CheetoFireCat December of 1989.
Justin Carawan Fr like I’m 20 and this the first time me hearing his shit
Oh god, looking at those flip phones is like going in a time machine
Solomoncumquats G ikr! I miss the good old days.
@@hayleyscomet3447 ur like 12 stfu lmao
I used to steal my moms flip phone
Yeah but there are still flip phones such as the alcatel go flip and the Samsung folder 2
The fact of the matter is this was only about 2006/07. Not that long ago, but technology has progressed at such a rapid pace that it feels like forever ago.
Do you think it would've faired any better if they put mouse ears on the phones?
Cute, but as soon as you try to put in your pocket you will realize the major design flaw.
It was probably scrapped at the first design revision!
@@kolonarulez5222 peepeepoopoo
Why are you replying to comments about Poo?
Yes.
"You must be the Coolest Mom ever"
*proceeds to stalk son on Google maps*
Mom sends a strongly worded text, "I see you spending more time with your dad. I know this divorce is hard on you, but you are in my care right now and I want you home!"
@@sasukeuchiha998 XD
That hits a little close to home for some.
Disney is extremely popular in Japan (to the point they turned Stitch into an anime) so it’s no surprise Disney Mobile is still around there. They also have their own music genre, D-pop
"D-Pop?" I thought that was just Disney classics sped up to chipmunk mode, with a splash of eurobeats thrown in.
@@UmmYeahOk that's just Disney Eurobeat
Give blockbuster to them and wait and see.
Hold up, there’s a Stich anime!?
"3" is the name of a service provider in europe, mainly UK and Ireland, that's their logo showing so it's clearly a partnership rather than saying "it's the 3rd one"
Emma Lane 3 is also an indo service provider
@@hayattitan....that comes from the uk
@@jdcsiahaan Hutchinson?
They are also big in Austria
Wooooo Tesco Mobile!!!!
I remember my friemd Courtney had a Disney phone and I wamted one Soooo bad, it seemed so cool. I'm glad my parents stuck out with Verizon...
Smelly poop
Your correct.
Poo is smelly.
@@memeshack9454 you're correct my Nut is Fat
@@Esdeath_0001 busting phatty nuts
@@memeshack9454 the fuck??
I was at guest relations for this project. Still remember two of the customers very specifically. As well as a number of issues with the service that had easy fixes. And I was there until the last day.
The best customer was this little girl that kept calling to get Hannah Montana’s phone number. She would pretend to be her and say she lost her phone. Always a pleasure to tell her we don’t have access to the information for celebrities. Yes, Miley Cyrus had a Disney Mobile account, but I have no idea if she actually used it.
that was probably me. sorry.
We all know the real king of the flip phone was The Motorola Razr
Blackberry for life 💪
I don't think the Motorola Razr was even sold where I live. Blackberrys wasn't sold here either. IMO the king(s) of the flip phones are Nokia N92, N93 and N93i. Those Nokia phones are smartphones so they had multitasking, downloadable apps & games, WiFi, 3G etc
Fun fact: The first iPhone didn't have downloadable apps until 2008. It also didn't have multitasking or 3G connectivity etc.
I have one!! They're actually not that cool tbh... But that doesn't mean they aren't cool!
@@Pasi123 *oh*
@@Pasi123 Truth! The Razr was a terrible, flimsy phone that couldn't do much. However it was the most popular phone in the US. The first iPhones were a bit of a joke compared the phones across the globe, but Americans loved them and they ended up pushing the market in a direction.
Personally I was a fan of Sony Ericsson (mostly the candy bars) until they started to stumble and was going to switch to Nokia but they started to stumble too.
ugh the japanese disney mobile phones are SO PRETTY wtf!!!
2000's japanese cellphones are beatiful more ahead of the time
Marketing success, lol. Yeah, sometimes companies try again in Japan and succeed... ...And then don’t bring it back here. There are a few Japanese cars that I like that don’t exist in the USA.
i mean it makes sense they are marketed to women.
and to marketing companys what do women want pretty things so make them look pretty.
id like to have one of them just because they look so cute
@@jonnda Can you name some of those cars? I would like to learn more.
I would probably own a phone like that if I could. Most of the devices you can get nowadays are all black or silver and are just really boring.
Its Disney mobile 3 because three is popular mobile network in europe (the '3' is their logo) :)
Jess I mean... popular? they're only active in the UK... compared to Vodafone and T-Mobile/Orange who have their own networks in multiple countries...
or Lycamobile, doesn't have their own network but operates in almost all of Europe and outside of that
@@arnemaeschaelck5012 I don't know about other European countries, but Three has been active here in Italy too for many, many years.
Also, I had the Disney Mobile 3 phone when I was a child. This video brings me back memories! :)
@@arnemaeschaelck5012 Denmark as well
Arne Maeschaelck they are in Sweden too
Bonsi oh okay then I seem to have been misinformed. Do they have a network in all of these countries?
I’m surprised that Disney didn’t team up with Apple to give their loyal customers the best from both of those companies.
Minh Duong Steve jobs absolutely fucking detested Disney and Tim Cook doesn’t like them either
@@Marcus51090 No he didn't. He detested Michael Eisner. Big difference. Jobs gladly sold Pixar to Disney once Eisner left and even served on their board until he died. He actually had a pretty good relationship with Disney and Iger.
Rob Plays I stand corrected
@@MidwaytoMainStreet The irony, Iger is ruining the company. Much like Iger, Jobs never actually built anything himself.
@Mickey Mouse Good thing he's retiring in 2021.
Strangely my first cell phone was a Mickey themed one from AT&T. If I remember correctly that was ‘in ‘99 or 2000.
I never heard of Disney Mobile till today
ZGlix same
same
same
ZGlix Same here pal
Same
A few of your "person using mobile phone" B-roll shots show the T-Mobile Sidekick, which I worked on for a while (I spent a lot of time working on UI performance of the model at 5:47 ). That was an actually successful phone aimed at the youth market, and it's interesting to compare what they did to what Disney did. It seems like Disney was marketing primarily to parents, not to kids--it was just assumed that the kids would want a cell phone and the pitch was that the Disney service had the features that would make their parents OK with it. The Sidekick actually appealed to kids, though. It was a proto-smartphone that concentrated on various forms of text messaging, with a huge QWERTY keyboard, and there were all kinds of outre branded versions with celebrity names on them and such. There was a really cheap data plan and the killer app was an AIM client, so you could text all day long without getting hit with the huge charges that would accrue from SMS in the days before flat-rate SMS plans. That was what teenagers actually wanted (though I suppose their parents liked the lower bills).
Ah so you were at Danger? How did people react when Andy left to start working on what became Android? I hear lots of people left to go with him on that, but some stayed behind and got acquired by Microsoft to build the Kin.
@@jSyndeoMusic I was hired after Rubin left, worked mostly on the later models that had full-color screens and scalable fonts. The last and best ones were actually finished after the Microsoft acquisition--they'd wanted to kill everything immediately, but there were contractual obligations. I was in Massachusetts, in a small remote office, but we made full use of our own tech to communicate.
And, yes, we eventually all got pulled into the Kin project. Everything that could possibly be wrong with that was; by the time we actually did any work on it, all the major design decisions had been made and it was too late to change anything. Microsoft really didn't want to deal with a dinky satellite office in Massachusetts, though, so we got jettisoned a few months before the phone's very brief release, and I witnessed the final disaster from a distance.
my mom had one of those! it was cool!
@BinkTinks I still miss two-thumb-typing on the Sidekick keyboard--for writing text, it was a better experience than anything you can do with a touchscreen. After the real Sidekick got killed, Samsung actually put out a "Sidekick 4G" which was a low-end Android slider phone with a vaguely similar keyboard, but it wasn't the same.
It's really neat to hear you folks talk about the production of the Sidekick! I never owned one or knew about it, but I might try to find a used one and see what I missed out on.
I remember my first cell phone. It was one of those legendary Nokias that could destroy a tank if dropped from high altitude and still keep working afterwards.
I saw you a few weeks ago at Epcot. You were under Space Ship Earth. I kept looking back at you. I told my friend I knew you from somewhere. The second I left the park I knew how I knew you. Great content!
Worth pointing out that Jobs was on the Board of Directors of Disney at the time and the largest shareholder at the company, which gives some credence to the idea that iPhone is linked to Disney Mobile’s demise. He did have a close relationship to Iger
Jobs also apparently told the head of ESPN “Your phone is the dumbest f***ing idea I have ever heard”
Dohers Was that around the time of the Rokr? 🤣
Seriously though, I’m surprised there weren’t more Disney/Apple connections but Disney had a partnership with HP at the time.
Good point!
@@MrDohers It's literally just an ad phone. That's what I don't get. The whole phone bases itself around the fact that you are a die hard ESPN ad and want to take in everything ESPN. Who wants that?
I feel like every video I watch about a phone, the Steve Jobs video comes out of nowhere every time
That's because the first iPhone was legendary for what it did for the market. However, nowadays iPhones are completely overpriced piles of garbage and dung.
Joshua Butt my iPhone 2G, it got some minor lcd damage (that gray blob on top), w a y older than my 8, and my 8 had so many board issues, I’m currently on my 3rd iPhone 8, no issues yet but the other 2 kept having WiFi and Bluetooth issues
Ironically as soon as I typed “WiFi and”, Bluetooth showed up in my word suggestions so I guess Apple knows about it lol
More like on cue every time. The minute they get into "so why wasn't this successful? Welll..." Jobs. Basically Steve Jobs. If you have a question about phones, your answer will include Steve Jobs. When it comes to technological breakthroughs, the iPhone (and smartphones in general) was the biggest technological milestone that happened since we landed on the moon. Of course it's going to be relevant.
99% of people who found this in their recommended probably said:
“...disney made a phone?”
That is correct
Only 90s and 2000s kids would know.
I I I was born in the 90s and I didn’t know until now 😜😂
Correction : 90's western world kids
That's me
Nobody:
Wow you must be the coolest mom *everrrrrrr*
Oh, I when I read the title I thought that the video was going to be about a Disney car.
“The Disney Mobile!”
“Robin, get in the Disney Mobile!”
Walt: "Roy, to the DisneyMobile!"
*mickey mouse ears spin*
More like "Ironheart, get in the Disney Mobile!"
Buzz Lightyear: “To the Disney Mobile...and beyond!”
here i am guys
Holy Disney, Batman!
So weird I remember that commercial as a child but I don’t remember Disney having a phone. Felt like it never happened.
I REMEMBER SEEING THE DISNEY MOBILE AD ON TV BACK IN THE DSY WHEN I WAS LITTLE. THE ONE WITH THE FLIPPHONE THAT HAD PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN!! I thought i was never gonna see that again!! Nostalgia!!!
The Disney Mobile smartphones are mostly manufactured by Fujitsu(a Japanese brand) and can be bought for very cheap in Vietnam. It only costs around $20 for a secondhand phone
The question is- will it work on a US phone service?
Japan: has anime
Also Japan: Needs Mouse Mobile...
9:20 can't blame Disney completely as they were going on with what they thought were the correct choice at the time. They thought that making a heavily Disney designed phone would turn away potential customers that might thought that Disney phone look like toys. And let's be real, a heavily branded Disney flip phone would look like a toy that you can buy from toy shop, battery not included. Meanwhile, the reason Disney phone or rather smartphone today could work is because its kinda hard to make smartphone look like toys and very easy to make them fashionable. Heck, if I was born at the time, and Disney actually made a heavily branded flip phone, I might not buy it. Their smartphone however...
It's a damned if they do and damned if they don't moment at the time.
Lets also not forget they owned a Hockey team and a Baseball team. Both they have sold now. Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
DisneyMobile was my second job out of high school. Most everyone who walked by the kiosk in Downtown Disney at Disneyland didn't want a phone plan but instead wanted the Disney themed accessories or sim cards for those traveling from overseas. The video is wrong saying that there was not a Disney themed phone... there was a "limited edition" Steamboat Willie phone we sold at a discount with a phone plan activation, otherwise it was $300 for the phone by itself in box. Most of those I sold were to Disney buffs who saw it as a future collectors item.
Wow that's really cool! I actually still have the steamboat willie one in my room pretty much brand new! My parents had gotten it for me back then but I only used it to play games once in a while because I was a dumb kid lol. I'm surprised I didn't scratch it up but I always kept it in the box when I wasn't using it. There's a few steamboat willie cartoons that came pre downloaded with it, the outside has a steamboat willie design, and there's disney ringtones and a game that came pre installed on it too! I was thinking about posting a video here on RUclips showing off the phone and its old content, I never knew it was rare but I still think it's pretty cool!
I worked for the Amp'd Mobile call center, and my BF worked for Helio. It was a wild time in the cell phone industry. It was fun to watch all the MVNOs fold in 2007.
As a teenager who still has a flip phone, I feel very included watching all these commercial clips 😂
I distinctly remember seeing Disney-themed phones geared towards kids back in the early-to-mid-2000s, does anyone else remember?
yes there were
@@Sarah_Gravydog316 disney actually did make a special edition phone for the disney mobile service. I still have the steamboat willie edition one from when I was a kid. It's still pretty much brand new since I only played games on it back then and would put it back in the box when I wasn't using it. Eventually one day I put it in the closet and forgot it was there for years. I just found it recently and was thinking about posting a video here showing the phone and content on it. It has disney ringtones, a steamboat willie theme, steamboat willie cartoons, and came with a pin.
MVNMs sound like they tried to make apps before apps where a thing
Apps existed, but instead of the app stores being run by Apple and Google they were run by the carriers. There would be an app on your phone for the carrier to buy ringtones, games or anything else for your phone.
In Germany MVNOs went a totally different route, nearly all big retailers and especially the discount supermarkets have their own MVNO (Aldi Mobile,Lidl Mobil). They mostly offer cheap prepaid tariffs. You just pickup the SIM card at checkout aisle when you're shopping for groceries and register it online. And some are really popular I remember back when I was a teen nearly all my friends and their families had Aldi Mobile, because for just 2.99€ you would get unlimited calls and SMS to every other Aldi number.
Other MVNOs here specialise in international calls for immigrants that want to call home.
basically yes.
It's like, why get a RUclips phone, when i already have RUclips on my phone.
the Disney phone was like a cheaper phone with less features,
which is fine, but consumers always want more features & more upgrades
In 2019...
**Disney mobile releases**
Me and the bois: Time to storm Disney headquarters
Reporter : "So ,why did you created the Disney Mobile ? "
Disney : "Hello ! I like money ! "
Groupon Ad: "and it's Stranger"
This Video: 0:00 "Disney is no Stranger"
Me: 🤤
If they came back out with it again and make it like an iPhone or galaxy and can properly make it work I’d get one. Either that or work with apple and make an Disney themed iPhone
Or with Android
"mom can I have the $2,000 dollar Mikey iPhone?" "Sure Billy! You can have a phone that is $2,000 and has tech from 2 gens ago.
@@noellschulte1418 Android doesnt make phones, they would have to choose another company like samsung or LG to use the Android OS
@@xdinaryheroesluv
But Samsung or LG chose Microsoft instead to use its OS
Their close competitor would be Google Fi, which is an also MVNO. $20 for unlimited data and text on a Pixel.
Man it's wild to think just how huge the company is like the CEO is just swimming in money
Next Disney is going into the news industry
oh
u R a pRopHet
XP_Studios Fox News?
They already do... ABC news... And I-
Now, if they waited I’d buy this so hard, if they had a Disney smartphone, touch screen and all I’d be on this so fast
I actually had Disney mobile for my family. It actually worked very well. I had complete control over everything for around approximately $80 a month.
Disney could have easily given Disney themed phones to kids and it would have sold like hotcakes! I have zero idea why they didn't do that!
This is hugely fascinating and weird. I was in Japan earlier this year - I wish I had kept an eye out for one
Same! I was in Japan months ago
When your a kid back then and you waited for the "night hours" so you can start making all the texts and calls you want to your friends or girlfriends/boyfriends amd just talk and talk
The irony of watching this on a smartphone 🤣
not actually ironic.
DJ there is no irony on that, learn to use the word
" I do not think it means what you think it means.” - Inigo Montoya
Are you watching this on the Disney Huawei phone?
EMBARQ is/was not an MVNO. It is/was a wireline phone company spun off by Sprint to offload their wireline business (what was left of United Telephone).
I haven't been to any of their markets for so long that I don't know whether they're still in business.
An interesting fact you didn’t mention too was the fact that 2007, the year The iPhone came out, was also the year Steve Jobs became a part of the Disney Board of Directors after they acquired Pixar, so there’s a chance that it was also leverage from Jobs for Disney not to be competing with the iPhone directly/indirectly.
I don’t think Steve was very worried about this 😂.
I remember ads for this. I was always telling my mom we needed to get Disney Mobile. She said we didn’t need it.
My childhood best friends had this as their first phones and I HATED going over their house because the WiFi also had parental controls 😂
How was that so bad?
White Recluse because my house was on that was on the honor system, and on trust. I had no parental controls, but there were rules. I knew that if I broke the rules then I would be in trouble, so my parents never needed to do parental controls.
When I went over their house I was subject to the parental controls, meaning my phone barely worked. I could text, talk and use a very very restricted amount of apps. Minecraft was blocked (which the 5 of us loved playing together), FNAF (another thing we would play together), RUclips (we would watch a lot of GameTheory together and a lot of RPG Let’s Plays, and then make our own theories together) etc etc etc.
Disney should give this another try, partner up with a company that makes low/mid range phones, let the phone company do all the phone things, hell they could even use the same phones that they already have, but let Disney handle all the looks aspect of the phone, take android and put a Disney skin on it.
Go into settings and disable all possible options that allow for tracking and that type of stuff (company shouldn't be tracking kids), take the Play store and either get rid of it and add a Disney Play store, if the store can't be taken away, make a Disney curated version of the store, with either only Disney made games and apps or that plus Disney curated apps, with special attention put into not allowing any apps that track and save data and no advertisement, things can not be purchased from the phone directly if there are paid apps or in app purchases, then a adult connected phone needs to approve any purchases. There should be no advertisements because everything ON the phone would essentially be a big ad for Disney.
Allow a Disney MCN only version of RUclips on the phone, no search feature and no linking to any outside the network content, so any suggestions or up next would be a Disney MCN content or if that's too restricting allow only RUclips kids on the phone, though I have no experience with RUclips kids so I have no idea how good it is at keeping children safe and not tracked, data collected or advertised to.
Maybe even allow kids to earn Disney points that can be redeem at Disney stores or the parks when they play the provided games. This way Disney can earn money, the kid's family earns a 5-10% discount on a weeks stay at a Disney hotel while at the same time Disney makes money from the child's family paying for the stay at the hotel and going to the park or from simply buying merchandise. To avoid the possibility of this being seen as advertising to kids maybe the points are not visible to the kid at any point, only viewable on the parents phone.
2004: Wow you just have the coolest mom ever.
2019: wow you must have the cheapest mom ever.
2046: WOW let’s put it in a Museum.
I remember the commercials for Disney mobile and I was always like “oh my god that’s so cool”
0:54 oh man I used to beg my mom for those phones when I was 5. The nostalgia.
Yikes! I'm glad this didn't take off. Let your kids have some privacy.
You do know parents can use another Disney service to watch what kids do on computers to block websites and when to go to sleep right I forgot what its called
PirateBoss1 parental controls. They’re generally everywhere
@@JenFromWebsite kids can always find a backdoor.
but... they don't?
Could you post the transcripts under your videos again? I know you used to on old videos and really miss it. Love the channel!
All the Disney park apps preloaded on my phone and already signed on? Sign me up.
Also the more I think about it, also integrate magic band so you can use the touchpoints like the VIP tour guides where they just tap their phone
Flip phones: where the best ones here now
iPhone: step aside, your considered ancient technology now.
Flip phones: y we not used anymore :(
I'm surprised Disney doesn't have their own airline
If they did MCO would be their main hub, and that's not a good airport for that.
Virgin mobile, a phone service targeted towards teens. Seems about right.
Here in the Philippines, Globe Telecom made a Disney Phone in about 2018 I believe
Could they still call parents anytime, even off limits? Cux that's sorta the point of them buying their kids phones
See Nickelodeon?! Disney gave us a phone but you don’t wanna throw us the pear phone..😒
My first cell phone was a Disney Phone. I got it when I was 11. And 6 years later, I got my first smartphone.
Right...
Imagine Disney OS 😂😂
Mickey mouse pops up as you turn on your phone 😂😂
3 (Tre, Italian for three) is a phone provider in Italy. There was no Disney 2 or 1 because the f-ing phone provider is literally called 3 xD
Confusion I know!
Ok, but Disney mobile could do pretty well today if they do it like they did in Japan.
I'm sure a lot of parents would love to actually have some control over their children's phone usage, because it's pretty rampant nowadays.
0:15 Mickey may be front and center, but I see Stitch, back there! 😁
Pretty cool.
I guess Disney and Globe got along pretty well. Here in the Philippines we have DisneyLife, through Globe. Pretty good selection of content for under $3 USD a month (p149). I wish it had more old content - I really want the old Wonderful World of Disney tv shows...
Huh. As a Filipino myself I was not aware we had Disney Mobile and DisneyLife, as I was already in the US that time when these came to be. I heard that one show- Legend of The Three Caballeros- was exclusive to DisneyLife there before it debuted in the US on Disney+.
Ah...the early 2000’s.. a golden age 😂
I never knew there was a Disney mobile here in the Philippines.
I wanted to get that special Mickey Mouse limited edition phone that they offered. I tried to get it but since my credit was bad they declined even though I offered to pay full price for that phone. I wanted that phone so bad it was the only phone they offered that actally had full Disney branding on it and came with some really nice extras. To this day I look for an old copy on ebay for that phone but since it was a limited edition phone they are really hard to come by.
Disney mobile 3 is because 3 is a European network (it was one of the first 3G networks)
Japan love all things Disney - so having a Disney themed phone was a hit...i lived there for 8 years and it was mostly teenage girls that went after the Disney phones
Video idea: The magic bands that do interesting lights/sounds rather than the normal ones.
Tugs B I did not know some could do that
Every single paper I've had a choice of topic on for my MBA has been about Disney but somehow I did not know about/remember this. Your content is amazing!!
thanks for this video I forgot about ESPN and Disney mobile. And I'm surprised Disney Mobile is still going in japan.
Me too!!! I thought it was gone years ago!
i bought some japanese disney phone at a junk shop, didn't even know they existed
I used to have a MVNO network for years as the data plan was a lot cheaper than other networks at the time.
I still use MVNOs. There prepaid plans tend to be cheaper still.
Still sometimes are (e.g. Mint Mobile is way cheaper than pretty much anyone else offering comparable plans).
I love these videos about mobile phones because it just shows how far we have come with mobile phones. We always take our phones for granted but we need to remember just how amazing they are, we are holding a super computer in our hands wherever we go, our phones can do anything and everything and it truly is amazing, espicially when you think that just 10 to 15 years ago we had nothing like what we have today, espicially on our mobile phones. Awesome video man! Subbed!
Cool video, though I am still waiting for the follow up video on why Disney does not have to have blinking lights on top of there buildings.
Micah Ott because Disneyland and Walt Disney World are registered ‘no-fly zones’ which means there will never be aircraft above it that will require blinking lights
Oliver Caveney that’s not true. It’s still required. Most buildings over 200ft need it. Every building at wdw is under it by barley a few inches or feet but they get away with it
@@ocaveney in his one video he said that they still had to have lights above the hotel or something like that and said he would clarify and explain when he found out
Next video, why do people keep typing "there" when it's supposed to be "their"
their*
I discovered that Disney use to make their own phone by Watching this video in my RUclips recommendations.
Actually docomo has already annouced shutting down the Disney mobile service in Japan😞
It ends August 22nd 2021...
Really? 😔
I used Three mobile while I was in the UK. I have no idea why it's called Three at all...
Maybe because it was... third best out of the uk phone providers... okay idk.
@@rainbowpearlvlogsandanimations better than EE or O2
It was the first 3G network in the UK.
Back when there was only 3 bars?
@@Kilbreezi Ah, thanks!
I would love for you to make a follow up video about disneys partnership with circle, which is Parental Control and Internet control for homes. Its a standalone product but it is also on many different individual products like routers.
Superb Rob!
PLEASE do a special on the business story behind WED!
The comment about Disney Mobile Japan still being a thing was so ironically timed as they went out of business this September.
They stopped the service?!
#nostalgic
I remember being a young lad who wanted any and every phone that came to my attention. Now fast forward 17 years later and I'm selling phones myself.
I've never heard anyone call them the aughts, most people call them the noughties. Though they're both a lot more specific than just "the two thousands".
If Disney revived this phone service. They’d charge you $20 per phone call.
2:59 - Nostalgia overload......for anyone that had internet and knew about this.
Killer closing. I always appreciate your writing. This last line today was succinct to say the least.
I laughed at kids with fireflies. Now that’s all I would want for my kid 🤦♀️
Al Ray SAME
8:01 it’s called 3 because that’s the carrier name it’s like saying Disney mobile at&t or something
Yeah
Me born in 2006: *what’s a flip phone again.*
My mom: *hold her down*
That ESPN phone is badass tho
Wait... Disney Mobile in the Philippines? Can't remember.
I didn’t know that exsisted and I was a kid when that came out😂
Ohioians Coasters same
Omg the one commercial where the mom shows her coworkers the phone stuff, the mom is the one mom from Us lol
Always fun and interesting information! I love the idea of them trying new businesses and markets. But interesting to hear about the mobile phone business.
I'm from Philippines, and is subscribed to globe, but not once have I ever heard about Disney mobile