Disney Mobile is an American division of Disney Consumer Products, a subsidiary of

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on Octobe ...

, that designs mobile apps, content and services.

History

In August 2000, Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) entered the mobile content market in Japan with an agreement with NTT DoCoMo to launch the Disney-i content service. In November 2003, WDIG and Index Corporation agreed to "develop and distribute Disney-branded mobile content for the Chinese market" and that Index would, in conjunction with China Mobile, work to launch the Disney Mobile service. Walt Disney Internet Group launched DisneyMobile.com in December 2003 as a portal for Disney Mobile content. Starting in January 2004, WDIG licensed Disney Mobile content to KPN, a prominent Dutch telecom firm. In March 2004, WDIG agreed to a licensing deal with

Vodafone Vodafone Group plc () is a British multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates services in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. , Vod ...

to provide Disney Mobile services in 14 countries: Australia, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Malta, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. Also in 2004, Disney re-activated the Starwave identity as Starwave Mobile, which publishes casual games for mobile phones for non-Disney brands within Disney's conglomerate or from third parties. Sprint and Disney had previously launched a phone service for sports fans using content from Disney's sports channel,

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

, branded

Mobile ESPN Mobile ESPN was a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) run by The Walt Disney Company using Sprint's EVDO wireless network from November 25, 2005, until December 2006. The service was widely considered overpriced and a failure, though in retrosp ...

. The company, working with Sprint, started a

mobile virtual network operator A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure over which it provides services to its customers. An MVNO enters into a business agreement with a mobil ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, which launched in June 2006. Earlier, DMobile and O2 agreed to a

agreement in April 2006 for the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. In August 2006, DMobile halted its plans to roll out its wireless service in the UK, citing "adverse changes in the retail environment for its decision". In September 2007, DMobile stopped signing up new wireless customers and discontinued the wireless service altogether on December 31, 2007. DMobile decided to shift its strategy by licensing its mobile suite, Family Center, and its content to other providers. However, in November 2007, Disney Japan and Softbank announced a wireless service joint venture, Disney Mobile, to be launched in 2008. In July 2010, Disney purchased Tapulous to increase available mobile expertise. In 2011, Bart Decrem of Tapulous was appointed general manager of DMobile. Launched September 22, 2011, '' Where's My Water?'', a mobile game, starring Swampy the alligator - the first Disney original mobile character - rivaled '' Angry Birds'' for 20 days in October 2011, even becoming the top mobile game on the

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mu ...

bestseller charts for a short time. This has led to a YouTube channel with a web series for Swampy. ''Where's My Water?'' has inspired several spin-offs, including “

Where's My Perry? ''Where's My Perry?'' was a puzzle video game spin-off of ''Where's My Water?'' themed after ''Phineas and Ferb'' and featuring Perry the Platypus. It was developed by Creature Feep and published by Disney Mobile, a subsidiary of Disney Interacti ...

” and “ Where's My Mickey?”. Also launched by DMobile in September 2011 was ''Puffle Launch'', a mobile version of the game played on

Club Penguin ''Club Penguin'' was a massively multiplayer online game (MMO), involving a virtual world that contained a range of online games and activities. It was created by New Horizon Interactive (now known as Disney Canada Inc.). Players used cartoon ...

. In October 2011, working with Spin Master, DMobile launched the first Disney Appmates game with ''

Cars 2 ''Cars 2'' is a 2011 American computer-animated spy comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the sequel to '' Cars'' (2006), the second film in the ''Cars'' franchise, and the 12th animated film from ...

'' toys that interact with an iPad screen. With a decrease in venture capital flowing into game companies, Disney Interactive, including Disney Mobile, has been able to find co-development partners easier. This co-development model has lifted Disney to have 11 games among the 200 most-downloaded. Disney Mobile teamed up with

Imangi Studios Imangi Studios is an American independent video game company best known for creating the top free iOS, Android, and Windows Phone game '' Temple Run''. Founded by husband-and-wife team Natalia Luckyanova and Keith Shepherd, the company also ha ...

to release a version of ''

Temple Run ''Temple Run'' is a 3D endless running video game developed and published by Imangi Studios. The player controls an explorer who has obtained an ancient relic and runs from demonic monkey-like creatures chasing him. The game was initially re ...

'' based on the film '' Brave'', titled ''Temple Run: Brave''. DMobile teamed up with developer Hipster Whale to release ''Disney Crossy Road'' on April 6, 2016, which in two days became the top downloaded game on iOS.

Wireless

In the US, Disney Mobile operated on Sprint's CDMA network. Disney handled the administrative side and marketed the service to family subscribers. Disney Mobile's offerings included Family Center suite, a multiple family-friendly applications to help parents manage their family's mobile phone experience. The innovative family monitor and call control features allowed parents to set spending limits and decide when the phone could and couldn't be used. The family locator service allowed parents to use GPS to locate their child's phone. There was also a family alert feature that let the whole family send text messages to each other. Disney and Sprint had hoped that Disney Mobile content and applications would help drive demand for data services.

Game support

Disney Mobile is well-known for producing a myriad of games for iOS and Android, but due to the limitations of its support team, it must discontinue old games before releasing new ones. Some games, such as '' Where's My Water?'' will continue to be supported indefinitely.

Related developers

* Rovio Entertainment *

Outfit7 Outfit7 is a Slovenian-Cypriot multinational video game developer, best known as the creator of the ''Talking Tom & Friends'' app and media franchise. The company was founded by Samo and Iza Login. The company operates in 7 studios worldwide a ...

* Kongregate * Jam City

Executives

*George Grobar, senior vice president and

General manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

(2005–2008) *Bart Decrem, General manager (2011–present)

References

External links

Disney Mobile Official Website
(Japanese) {{United States mobile communications brands Sprint Corporation Companies based in Palo Alto, California Defunct mobile phone companies of the United States Disney Interactive Mobile game companies Mobile phone companies of Japan Mobile virtual network operators SoftBank Group