An ESPN branded Sanyo mobile handset and a new MP3 player for the kiddie market have emerged from the House of Mouse.
One of the biggest content providers on the planet, the Walt Disney Company, has been working on the content platform. They’ve had mixed success over the years, but now it looks as though new CEO Robert Iger’s regime will take a shot at the wireless and digital music device markets.
Disney disclosed it would produce a handset with Sanyo for Disney’s ESPN Mobile division. The branded mobile device, called the Sanyo MVP, will receive sports programming and entertainment via the ESPN wireless phone service.
The Sanyo MVP will work on high-speed EV-DO networks, necessary to deliver video programming. A 1.3 megapixel camera and a music player compatible with MP3, AAC+, and Apple’s AAC audio format.
While the phone will have AAC compatibility, the new Mix Sticks music players will only support MP3 and WMA format songs. The $49.99 128MB players will launch with four designs, and will also have a SD/MMC slot. That slot will let the pre-teen crowd purchase and play Disney Mix Clip MMC cards with pre-loaded content.
Disney plans to complement the Mix Sticks players with various accessories, similar to the approach taken by Apple and Sony with their music players. One accessory, the $39.99 Jam Stand, will recharge the 10-hour battery and flash colored lights while playing music over its stereo speakers.
David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
