Virgin’s initial Mobile TV venture falls flat

[Backman]

Despite being a unique feature at launch Virgin Mobile’s DAB TV has so far flopped, and high cost ad campaigns featuring Pamela Anderson have yet to stimulate sales.

We wrote about the Virgin TV Mobile (VMTV) back in September 2006 and you may have seen their recent ad campaign featuring Pamela Anderson advertising the Lobster 700 TV mobile phone. It seems the campaign hasn’t been very successful and Virgin has sold fewer than 10,000 handsets.

Beauty is skin deep and, let’s face it, the Lobster phone isn’t exactly a fashionable stylish looking mobile. It is eye catching but for the wrong reasons, the large hump on the side of the handset isn’t an attractive feature and makes the handset look like a bulky 80’s retro mobile phone.

MORE (http://www.onecompare.com/mobile-news/article.asp?aid=235&pub=19347387&story=Virgin%E2%80%99s-initial-Mobile-TV-venture-falls-flat&skn=moneysavingexpert)

[Malkav]

i own one of the said handsets and its a great bit of kit, i expected it to be a bit bulky and the design i found was actually quite good (as in fit for my hands etc) i have to say (though it may not be to everyones taste) it was my highlight of 2006 (phone wise!)

[Luton Bee]

It is eye catching but for the wrong reasons, the large hump

So that's why they got Pammy to advertise it? :D

[Richard D]

At the price they're selling the handsets now you're getting a very cheap Windows Smartphone, even if you don't use the TV...

[daveislander]

YUP!! Just bought a Lobster 700TV and it beats anything else into a cocked hat!! Having a Windows smart phone for the grand total of about £65 (it came with £35 airtime).. AND being able to watch TV and over 30 DAB radio channels and put 2 GIG of storeage in for an extra £12 is absolutely brilliant!!! It plays exactly what my PC does.. I can watch a movie, email, browse the internet and it is SOOOOOo cool.
Perhaps the venture has fallen flat,, but for ME it has allowed me to buy a top class phone for pennies!

[Malkav]

i got one of them handsets and its a great bit of kit, i like it loads

[Geoneil]

The TV service is pants IMHO (I'm on Pay as you Go on Virgin and I'm NOT paying £5 a month for 5 channels that are mostly off air due to "rights restrictions" - BBC1 and ITN notwithstanding)

The handset itself is excellent, great value considering you're getting a Windows Smartphone with a built-in DAB radio :D

[daveislander]

Well, after a few weeks with this thing I have to take back everything good I said about it, and about Virgin!.. It seems that during 'routine maintenance' on the local mast Virgin decided to move it a few inches.. as a result we lost some of our signal... from that day on we couldn't make a call to each other without switching off and re-starting our Lobsters! To make matters worse, we started having the same problems when in a previously strong signal area, and the last straw was when we were in Southampton last week and couldn't phone each other at all! Virgin did try to put things right but in the end they gave us the unlock codes and we started to look for another sim.... We tried a Vodafone one but had no internet and no way of setting it up.. 3 sims do not work, neither do Orange or T mobile! We even got lovely new memory cards on Saturday,, neither of which were recognised by the Lobster and the one put into MY phone was fried within 2 minutes! So we had to stump up another £120 to buy 2 SE Z530i just to get a bloody phone that worked!
I have to admit that I shall mourn the loss of my smartphone, and funds allowing I shall get another one on a different network eventually.. but I even got tired of the TV and radio due to the crappy signal and issues with getting a station....

Looks like Virgin crapped out IMO,, the Lobster is fine if you dont mess with it, and live in a very strong signal area,, but anything less than 100% will kill it quicker than a bolt of lightening!