Spectator Ratings On Your Mobile Phone

Thanks to a tip from Professor Bainbridge, Vinography has just learned that you can get all of Wine Spectators wine ratings accessible through your cellphone. Of course, you can't actually look at the advertisement for the service, or find out anything about it without first becoming a paid subscriber to the Wine Spectator Web site, which as a fellow wine blogger put it so nicely yesterday, requires you to pay for even thinking about the site (yes, even if you are already a subscriber of the magazine, like me).

<dripping sarcasm> Hmm. Yeah, I'm definitely in the habit of buying services for my cellphone without knowing what they can actually do.</dripping sarcasm> Of course, that's presumptuous of me. It turns out that I can't actually buy this service without...yes, you guessed it: first buying a subscription to the Web site!

Posted by: Alder on January 20, 2005 9:56 AM: Tweet; Share this post elsewhere: Digg it! - Add to del.icio.us - Add to Stumbleupon - Add to Reddit; Filed under: Ramblings and Rants

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Comments (2)

Michael Young wrote:

01.24.05 at 12:03 PM

Hi Alder,

Here is some more info (demo, faq, etc) on the new Wine Spectator mobile app: http://www.airborne-e.com/website/winespectator/

-Michael.

Brad wrote:

11.30.08 at 8:31 AM

Alder -

I guess the question is: what *is* the right model for bringing content to consumers through the phone?

I agree that wine spectator is taking the wrong approach, forcing people into website subscriptions before they've even tried the app. On the other hand, few content providers have cracked the "mobile nut" and figured how to make money, so maybe they're onto something...

I'd be interested in your (and your reader's) thoughts on business models for mobile and mobile's place in the wine industry. Should content be free and ad-supported, subscription-based, based on a snacking model i.e. micro-payments per inquiry? These apps take time and money to develop, so the money has to come from somewhere...