In response to our post yesterday about ESPN taking a $25 million loss on ESPN Mobile, reader Jim from Boston writes in to tell us where, precisely, the network's pricing plan might have gone wrong.

A little bit of market research would have solved this for them.

Q: What market segment needs the absolute, most up to date sports scores, info, etc? A: Bookies. Q: What phone does your average bookie have? A: The cheapest-ass no-contract pre-paid he can find since he'll only have it for a couple weeks before he gets another.
Add in some voice encryption, host the billing records in a third world country, and you might have a real product. Not that I know anyone who would need that specific set of features. Ahem.

So depressingly, obviously true.

What's $25 Million Between Friends? [Deadspin]

Contact information for this author is not available.