Disney Undeterred: Confidient Japanese MVNO Will Succeed Where U.S. Version Failed

Disney's not discouraged.

Despite the colossal failure of its U.S. MVNO, the Mouse House has high hopes for its Japanese counterpart.

Indeed, AFP is reporting that Disney Mobile Japan unveiled its first phones in Japan yesterday, stating it is "extremely confident" in success after learning lessons from its flop in the U.S.

This time out, the company's offering is not aimed at kids or families, but rather young working women, who are crazy about Disney cartoons.

The phones, made by Sharp, feature an outer package that's covered with silhouette patterns of Mickey Mouse. They also feature a special online bottom that allows subscribers to jump to Disney websites, while Disney's iconic characters can be used on standby screens and to decorate emails free of charge.

That's all just particular to the Japanese market. Those aforementioned lessons learned from the U.S. include a decision to forgo a solo play and get Softbank involved.

All that said, Japan's mobile content market has always been a boon to Disney, as I discuss in BRANDING UNBOUND the book. Its MVNO there would have been on surer footing even if it had been launched concurrent with the U.S. version.

Indeed, Disney is already a major content provider for mobile phones in Japan, with an estimated 3.5 million people subscribing to its site. According to the company, 75 percent of those subscribers are women over 20.

So clearly, this is a different market all together from the U.S. And one that could prove even more popular as Disney Mobile Japan gets moving.

Read all about it, here.

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