IP: Manchester United and Vodafone

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> X-Sender: nbr () popin newcastle ac uk
> Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 17:02:52 +0000
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk>
>
>
>  Dave:
>
> Recent big news here has been the (UK pound)30m (nearly $50 million)
> sponsorship deal between Manchester United and  Vodaphone, the UK mobile
> phone company. (Manchester United are perhaps the best soccer team in
> Europe - though they were beaten 3-0 by Newcastle United last Saturday! :-)
>
> What is interesting is the thinking behind this deal, as described in a
> full page set of articles in the Guardian newspaper on Saturday. I tried
> unsuccessfully to find these articles on the Guardian's website - here
> instead are some brief quotations from them.
>
> Cheers
>
> Brian
>
> =======
>
> Manchester United and Vodafone
>
> What the shirt deal is really about
>
> Manchester United and Vodafone yesterday gave the clearest indication yet
> of how technological changes are revolutionising the way the public
> consumes information and spend its money by announcing a pioneering
> sponsorship deal that will allow fans to watch live football matches and
> buy replica kits through their mobile phones. The world's largest mobile
> phone service provider has agreed a (UKP)30m four-year alliance that will see
> it become United's official shirt sponsor and provide wireless internet
> services to the club's 12m supporters worldwide.
>
> Although Vodafone believes it will be four years before fans can watch a
> game live on their mobile, from August fans with Wap (wireless application
> protocol) phones will be able to receive news and latest scores direct from
> their handsets.
> ....
> The first Wap phones are already on the streets. Swedish giant Ericsson
> said yesterday there could be 600m mobile phones in use worldwide by 2002,
> and that may prove to be an underestimate.
>
> Already the new WAP phones can be used to send email, receive news clips,
> stock market prices or football results, book theatres or restaurants,
> place bets, check your bank account or to create a direct link to parts of
> your own website. You can even watch a live mini-map showing traffic jams
> on the ring road around Paris.
> ...
> For once the digital action is not in the United States but Europe.
> Finland's Nokia, with 29% of the world mobile phone market, has just rolled
> out its 7110, to be closely followed by Ericsson, the world's second
> largest mobile manufacturer, Motorola of the US, and Siemens. Vodaphone is
> British, as is Psion, which is challenging Microsoft to provide the
> standard operating system for internet phones.
> ...
>
> --
> Dept. of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne,
> NE1 7RU, UK
> EMAIL = Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
> FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/