Cringely on Blockbuster-iPod Video Distro Plan 218
MrPerfekt writes "In this week's Cringely column, another one of his hypothesizing sessions actually seems plausible. Blockbuster's retail outlets make good sense for Apple to partner with them for video iPod content distribution. From the article: 'Take your Video-out iPod to Blockbuster, drop it in a kiosk dock then download from the local xServe your choice of 50,000 movies. You can rent the movie or buy it and you can even choose the resolution, which may or may not affect the final price. Take the iPod home, drop it in the dock attached to your TV and watch the movie. H.264 decoding takes place in the iPod in hardware.'"
But, but (Score:3, Funny)
Re:But, but (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Cringely's on crack today. (Score:5, Insightful)
... I have a perfectly good cable modem connection
If you RTFA you'll see that this is intended to extend iPod sales to those who do not have broadband access (or even a computer). Yes, believe it or not, such people do still exist.
Re:Cringely's on crack today. (Score:2)
Or to misquote Andy Tannenbaum: Never underestimate the bandwidth of a city bus full of iPods hurtling down town.
Re:Cringely's on crack today. (Score:5, Funny)
I'm more surprised that people who RTFA on Slashdot still exist. Don't you want first post!?
- shadowmatter
No Computer = No iPod... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:No Computer = No iPod... (Score:2)
Re:No Computer = No iPod... (Score:2, Insightful)
As for broadband uptake, perhaps the article about USA attitudes to Broadband [slashdot.org] wasn't available when you wrote -- it tells us that many pe
Re:No Computer = No iPod... (Score:2, Interesting)
Useless consumerism. (Score:2)
Why do everybody needs to fill the music players with uncountable hours of music that will neve be heard?
All this people boasting about 20000 songs n their Ipods are consumate idiots. Basic arithmetic will show that they wil neve ever listen to all that music.
SOmebody sensible will put a few CDs and be done with it. Somebody even more sensible would buy a small caoacity okayer.
Re:Useless consumerism. (Score:2)
it's a waste of money. With that few cd's you could buy a cheepy flash mp3 player and put the 7 cd's on it. or buy a cd player that reads MP3's and burn all 7 cd's on a single cdr.
why buy an pricey ipod for 7 cd's?
Re:No Computer = No iPod... (Score:2)
Re:No Computer = No iPod... (Score:2)
I find the whole notion quite intriguing, and very possible.
(tig)
Re:Cringely's on crack today. (Score:2)
Bob's a smart guy. I've had emails with him. But he needs to get a carbon monoxide detector in his study. I think his heater's running funny this week...
Re:Cringely's on crack today. (Score:3, Insightful)
And people who can't get broadband internet or cable probably don't have a Blockbuster nearby.
Re:Cringely's on crack today. (Score:2)
Re:Cringely's on crack today. (Score:2)
1) Drive to video store
2) Sync iPod
3) Pay $$$
4) Drive home and watch movie
takes a lot more time in active participation than, say
1) Download movie in background
2) Pay $$$
3) Watch Movie
Re:Cringely's on crack today. (Score:2)
Other than perhaps saving Apple a large fortune in bandwidth costs and the bad karma associated with grinding the entire internet to a halt as millions of geeks cry 'Ohh! Movies on iTunes! Shiny!'
I, however, would suggest some place other than Blockbuster:
Blockbuster == evil
big chain grocery store == less evil
Re:Cringely's on crack today. (Score:2)
Re:Cringely's on crack today. (Score:2)
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/0509/ [websiteoptimization.com]
Re:Cringely's on crack today. (Score:2)
Re:Cringely's on crack today. (Score:2)
To another parent's posting about the "embarrassing" level of broadband penetration in the U.S. Might I ask which countries with a population distribution similar to the U.S. are shining examples of how to get affordable broadband to everyone? It's a pretty darn easy problem to solve if your entire cou
Re:Cringely's on crack today. (Score:2)
Re:Cringely's on crack today. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Cringely's on crack today. (Score:2, Insightful)
Not everyone lives in a house or tenement with cable Internet or DSL, for instance. Even in some suburbs cable is not available, and if you're in a rural area, it likely won't be available for decades. The same goes for DSL.
And while there are many people who do have such services available to them, but choo
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Cringely's on crack today. (Score:2)
Re:Cringely's on crack today. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Cringely's on crack today. (Score:2)
that's just a software thing.... (Score:2)
the only reason you can not drag files from the iPod is that the music is in a hidden folder. like somebody above said, in MS Windows you just have to make the fold
BURST.COM is still a problem - also Sony! (Score:5, Interesting)
1. Invalidating their key patents via the courts - long and costly
2. Buying a license to use their patents (the solution Microsoft pursued) - short and costly
3. Buying Burst.com - short and costly and not a chance in hell because I can't see Jobs giving up when he is convinced that the patents that Burst.com hold are invalid.
However, I do think that the rumors of Sony launching some sort of movie service that y'all can plug your PS3s into is lighting a fire under the Cupertino booty. Somebody is going to launch this party . . . and if iTunes is any indication, to the first goes the $$$$.
We definitely live in interesting times.
Re:BURST.COM is still a problem - also Sony! (Score:2)
Doubtful Business Model (Score:4, Insightful)
But borrowing a DVD is already incredibly easy. About the only way this is easier is that you don't have to return the DVD and I don't think that's enough. Apple would be asking its customers to spend hundreds of dollars (?) on a piece of hardware that would be doing more or less the same job as the DVD player they already own.
It's probably a reasonable why-not idea, for those who already have an iPod. But I can't see it attracting a lot of new customers.
Re:Doubtful Business Model the prequel (Score:5, Insightful)
Change DVD player to CD player and go back a few years.
Now how does this blurb about the iPod sound:
Apple would be asking its customers to spend hundreds of dollars (?) on a piece of hardware that would be doing more or less the same job as the CD player they already own.
terrible business model....
Re:Doubtful Business Model the prequel (Score:2, Insightful)
iPods had a big advantage over portable CD players - more portability. They were smaller than portable CD players, more convenient to use, much more portable than CD libraries. I don't think the video iPod has any similar advantage. It's not a portable viewer, as long as you're still taking it home to watch on your TV. If people start watching movies on VR glasses or something then that sounds like a much more promising paradigm.
iPods could also use songs downloaded from the internet. There's a margina
Re:Doubtful Business Model the prequel (Score:2)
Those who do have broadband are much more likely to forgo the blockbuster stores thus making blockbuster totally redundant for Apple. And that's why Cringely is full of it.
Re:Doubtful Business Model the prequel (Score:3, Insightful)
The thing is, portable DVD players are already cheaper than video iPods. And regular DVD players are cheaper than an iPod Shuffle.
Going with the iPod really doesn't get you much of an advantage. The screen is smaller, the video is lower quality when hooked up to a TV. The only advantage might be that you can keep more than one movie on the iPod, but that strikes me as being much less significant than the ability to keep thousands of songs on an iPod versus a few songs on a CD.
There's no way Blockbuster is g
Where this WOULD work... (Score:3, Insightful)
As an addendum, there is one place where I think this business model would work well...
Airports. The ideal market for this would be travellers facing a few hours on a plane, who probably would appreciate being able to pick up a video to watch without being encumbered by a DVD case, bag, plastic wrapper, etc.
Especially if the service allowed the movie to be loaded onto a laptop for customers without a video iPod.
Re:Doubtful Business Model the prequel (Score:2)
Re:Doubtful Business Model (Score:2)
hmmm iPod or DVD (Score:2, Insightful)
first of all apple hasn't sold enough video ipods for blockbuster to even think of making a kiosk.. and second everyone has dvd players dummy.. you dont need a 400$ portable device to rent a movie.. you simply take the piece of plastic home with you. Maybe your saving the customer a return fee but why not save the c
Re:hmmm iPod or DVD (Score:2)
Part of this strategy make sense (Score:5, Interesting)
My first reaction was the same as many here when I read the article: why bother, if you have broadband?
Cringely gives a good answer toward the end: because not everyone we know is using computers or cares about broadband. Outside our techie world, some people find the computer either intimidating or perfectly acceptable running on a 56 kbps modem. Thus, the ability to dock and iPod and refresh its contents at a local store isn't that far-fetched.
If you look at some of the big box retailers' strategies, they're all leveraging their on-line stores against their bricks-n-mortar stores, creating a continuum rather than a separate experience. They are integrating their
Now... coming back to reality... where on earth does Cringely get this stuff? Very entertaining, good speculation... but just that, in the end. Is anyone keeping track of which of his write ups wind up being accurate?
Cheers,
Eugene
Re:Part of this strategy make sense (Score:2)
While that may be true, I doubt many of those people without a computer happen to have an ipod.
I'd also suspect those who are happy with dialup are more inclined to rent a DVD.
where on earth does Cringely get this stuff?
Cringely predictions have always been a take-with-a-grain-of-salt kind of thing.. After these two ridiculous apple predictions today, I wouldn't be surprised if he's getting
Re:Part of this strategy make sense (Score:2)
Re:Part of this strategy make sense (Score:3, Informative)
According to the man's own review he does a reasonable job [pbs.org] at around 73-80 percent depending on how critical you want to be.
Re:Part of this strategy make sense (Score:2)
Re:Part of this strategy make sense (Score:2)
Re:Part of this strategy make sense (Score:2)
Speaking of mov
Contacts... (Score:2)
These writers seem to have access to some really heavy drugs and I'd like to buy some.
Or maybe Cringely and Dvorak are willing to share.
Why do we even listen to Cringley? (Score:3, Funny)
Not to mention the Tarintino wannabe desk jockey with a chip on his shoulder after you try to rent Navy Seals or somesuch.....
Re:Why do we even listen to Cringley? (Score:2)
queues (Score:2)
133 seconds (Score:2, Informative)
how big is a dvd quality movie?
Without extras, about 4 GB, or 32000 Mbit.
how fast is usb?
Theoretically 480 Mbps, practically 240 Mbps or thereabouts. 32000 Mbit / 240 Mbps = 133 seconds.
The predictions! The predictions! (Score:4, Funny)
Day late, dollar short (Score:2, Insightful)
Blockbuster is already picking up the Netflix model and supplanting it with free in-store rentals.
More on Burst.com (Score:4, Insightful)
What does this mean?
1. Burst.com needs more time to get their ducks in a row?? - Not likely. Any patent attorney worth their shiny shoes could have seen this stink with Apple coming from at least 946 smoots away. I can't imagine that Burst.com didn't anticipate Apple's suit and thus, they know how to reply.
2. Burst.com is stalling for time in case someone else is going to buy them in the near future - Why would Sony or Microsoft swoop in now when they didn't all of last year? They've got their own dudes with shiny shoes who are advising them to wait on the sidelines. I'm postive that no one in high-tech thinks that Burst.com's patents are valid -- however, someone has to jump in and sue. If Apple does, let 'em. Sony and Microsoft and Amazon and NetFlix and Blockbuster and . . . . insert old media company here . . . will jump in the pond after Apple's determined the water temperature. No one ELSE is going to buy Burst.com until this thing is clear.
3. Burst.com and Apple are working out a deal - Now this one . . . I think I can smell. Apple's suit is a great opening chess move. I can see Burst.com demanding a hefty licensing fee that amounts to something silly like amounts that have more than 9 figures or huge amounts each year. I'll bet Burst.com even has the moxy to think that their patents are worth hundreds of millions alone. What better way to get good terms for Apple than to file a suit? Dare Burst.com to go to trial . . and risk losing the patents . . . or settle on a lower licensing fee or selling price.
I'll bet at least my own shiny shoes that these suits are just negotiating by other means.
Forget Blockbuster, go Lockerbuster (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously, who needs a coupla thousand square feet of overlit retail space and some glassy-eyed clerks when a vending machine can do the exact same thing, 24/7, in 12 square feet, installable in any mini-mall, public transit station, school or grocery store? If Apple were really interested in direct loads to iPods one of these and a network connection is all they need.
Figure a box the size of your typical soda machine (mostly for security & visibility), fill the bottom foot with concrete for stability and theft-discouragement, then a rack with an Xserve & some reasonably high-speed communications gear. Have it download material on a regular basis, video & audio, in whatever formats and quality required. Put some smarts into the system so local demographics are respected and demand is anticipated (Espaniol in Spanish neighborhoods, kiddie material when installed in schools, etc.) On the front stick a few TV screens showing previews and specials.
For security double encrypt all of the media content, partially decrypt as it's being iPod-loaded, then have it played back using a public key system. Then step back and see what sells. Sure music, videos, ringtones and movies can be the first products but what about software, indeed any sort of large or valuable file. Leave room in the top of the box for wireless distribution - walk nearby and your electronics can auto-discover streaming audio and video advertising in WiFi & Bluetooth, access to websites that pay Apple for the privilege, etc.
But a whole Blockbuster? Naw, a mini Lockerbuster!
Re:Forget Blockbuster, go Lockerbuster (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Forget Blockbuster, go Lockerbuster (Score:2)
Re:Forget Blockbuster, go Lockerbuster (Score:2)
Re:Forget Blockbuster, go Lockerbuster (Score:2)
1. if you plan to deploy nation wide, that's a very hefty intial investinvestment on trying to secure the box and digital equipment. it's not like your local rent-a-dvd box where the mechanisms are similar to a vending machine. I would have to say the security on these boxes would need to be almost on par with ATM machines.
2. updating the server would mean it'll need an online connection. once again, something general vending mach
Re:Forget Blockbuster, go Lockerbuster (Score:2)
Why is that? Just encrypt the content (or even 1/10th of it spread through a movie) stored in the kiosk and have a hardware coprocessor decrypt it as it is transferred. Anybody messed w
Everyone here has broadband, so no one gets it (Score:4, Interesting)
But that's just the advantage over internet distribution. No one's talking about the advantages over retail.
How many movies are in an average blockbuster. How many of you have gone there (ok, say five years ago back when you didn't just download it over your university connection) and they didn't have the movie you wanted to watch, or had already rented it?
If you have all of your collection on a hard drive, you can rent it out to everyone at once, no problem. And you can keep WAY more movies available at any one location.
The whole convenience of blockbuster is a good selection (or sometimes just large selection - how much luck do you have finding exactly the awful horror flick your friend recommended to you on p2p in any reasonable amount of time) and short time to get it - yes, it isn't as convenient as netflix or a download if you're planning ahead, but if you just want something to watch TONIGHT, it's a lot easier to stop at a store on your way home than scour p2p or call netflix and wait a day.
I could definitely see my parents (who don't have broadband) using this, and if it were tied into a fully stocked online store/rental (and therefore, I already had a video ipod) I could myself using it, too, when I don't have time to wait for a download.
It's not as good as a full download store for those of us on fat pipes, but a large portion of the country can't or won't get those, and for those people I could see this being quite useful (assuming you made the whole thing so easy to use that they wouldn't be intimidated by it - that'd be the hard part).
Re:Everyone here has broadband, so no one gets it (Score:2)
One of the reasons that netflicks is so popular is its HUGE selection. I can see a bunch of advantages for Blockbuster to be able to match that selection.
No idea what their current deal with the MPAA is, though. I think there's something special with new releases, at least, where they don't actually keep as many copies as they have the first month. Not sure if they just sell them in store or if they have something worked out with distributors for it.
In any case, though, bl
I doubt it (Score:2)
The beauty of those shiny plastic disks called DVDs is that you don't need any special means of transporting them from a store to your house.
Besides, how long would it take to copy 6-40 Gb of files to an iPod through a dock. How many customers per hour does a blockbuster store serve?
Most people who visit video stores seem to hire 2-3 movies at a time, possibly more for weekly hires. This seems like an awfully slow way to process customers.
Re:I doubt it (Score:2)
Standard Def Movie - roughly 6Mbps, 7200 seconds worth, would take a minimum of 90 seconds if you got 480Mbps - probably a bit longer in RL. HD movies 2x to 3x longer. Combined with movie previews and browsing for another movie as you wa
90's call Cringely, ask for shoes back. (Score:3, Insightful)
Wow, that's backwards thinking for you! Why bother leaving the house?
All apple needs to do is upgrade the mac mini to include an ipod video docking station and convince us that we need one in the living room. Download movies from the iTunes video store and play them using the mac mini. If you want to take a movie to a friends house just sync it to the ipod video go to said friends living room with an s-video cable and viola: The ipod is the new DVD media and player all in one. Exactly where they want to be.
All this sneaker-net idea of his would do is slow Blockbusters death at Apple's expense.
Re:90's call Cringely, ask for shoes back. (Score:2)
Have you tried downloading five gigabytes on typical consumer broadband? That's the size of a typical DVD-quality movie nowadays. With a 1 mbps broadband connection, it would take me nearly half a day to download five gigs, and I'd have my Internet connection saturated to the point of unusability that whole time. Doesn't sound like such a good idea now, does it, thanks to the pathetic state of American broadband. It would be far more convenient to go to the corner store, get the movie straight in, and in
Different Option Possible (Score:3, Interesting)
What BB could do is to stock iPods preloaded with movies? You go and pick up a movie. When a movie is in demand, they load many iPods with the movie. When it goes out of demand, they replace the movie by a newer one.
They get to re-use the hardware. They could also do just-in-time inventory - if a movie is left with 2 copies, they just start loading another 2.
BB could charge customers a deposit to rent the device.
But I still think a better solution is downloadable movies.
Re:Different Option Possible (Score:2)
The reason downloadable movies are tricky is because not everyone has broadband and of the people who do have broadband, many don't
laughable... (Score:2)
2. How many people who don't have iPods don't have broadband? I have a 6 mbps cable connection at home, and even though it's only about four blocks to the nearest Blockbuster, I'd still just download the movie and save myself the bother of leaving the house.
This sounds at lot like those promised CD burning stations that never went anywhere, or the mp3 sale
Apple Retail Store Is the First Place (Score:2)
Re:Apple Retail Store Is the First Place (Score:2)
There are very few Apple stores compared to Blockbuster. The nearest Apple store to me is more than 70 miles away, but there are 10 Blockbuster stores within 10 miles.
From quick scan of Apple's list http://www.apple.com/retail [apple.com] it looks like about 35 or so U.S. states have Apple stores, with most of those having 3 or less stores serving the entire state. I don't know if that covers "the majority"
Re:Apple Retail Store Is the First Place (Score:2)
And if you overlay that map with a map of where the NFL, NBA, and MLB teams are in the US, you will see that they alig
It's a good idea for hi-def. (Score:2)
But I agree with another poster; this only requires a vending machine, not a whole store.
this is a new idea? (Score:2)
what the critics don't get. (Score:2)
massively sexier than previous generations.
They also do good video right now.
As I type one of my staff sitting behind me is using my ipod to watch a movie I ripped onto it last night (it's a slow day). It took 3 hours to convert the DVD and I had to buy it in the first place so buying the content over a USB line has some merit even for me. the other guy in the room is jealous and wants me to plug the ipod into the TV.
my "right-now" ipod will do video and aud
Why would Apple go with Blockbuster? (Score:2)
Does anyone even go to Blockbuster anymore? (Score:2)
But I do have a question for all you iPod owners: is it really worth getting videos for iPod? Isn't the screen insanely small?
He's definitely got one part wrong (Score:2)
Apple HD feature distro (Score:2)
It looks increasingly as though they're creeping towards that model with iTMS, Steve Jobs' is now Disney's biggest shareholder, giving him power to start with Disney & Pixar's content (which would be well worth seeing in HD at home) and to ge
Really... (Score:2)
Really? H.264 is quite compute intensive. Does an iPod really pack this much power?
And how about desired features like fast-forward and instantaneous skipping to the next scene?
Business Model OK, delivery Not OK. (Score:2, Interesting)
Great! But what's different? (Score:2)
Re:Why would you leave home to do this? (Score:2)
Re:Why would you leave home to do this? (Score:2)
Probably more to the point, why would Apple choose to latch onto a dying business [variety.com]? That's the real reason this plan would never happen. When was the last time Steve Jobs purposely looked backwards in terms of content and product distribution?
Re:Why would you leave home to do this? (Score:2)
I can see, the value of it, but I don't think it will work
Re:Questions (Score:2)
remove the word iPod (then correct an to a) and ask:
"Why would I want to drive to the nearest Blockbuster location when I can download a movie from the comfort of my very own cable modem?"
You might not, but Blockbuster obviously has customers. I'll admit that iPod owners most likely own computers so they would most likely be in the download subset of people anyway, b
Because not everybody can get broadband (Score:2, Insightful)
Why would I want to drive to the nearest Blockbuster location when I can download an iPod movie from the comfort of my very own cable modem?
If no cable company is willing to run Internet access to your geographic area, or you are otherwise happy with dial-up, then getting high-speed Internet access just for downloading movies may be more expensive than a DVD rental by mail subscription, and given the price of urban real estate, moving house is even more expensive.
Re:Questions (Score:2)
no, I don't have sex with electronics
Re:Questions (Score:2)
Re:Cool (Score:2)
Re:schemes like this was discussed before many tim (Score:2)
If this is the stuff that Cringely steals, I'd hate to see the ideas that he skips.
Re:Couple (invalid) Things (Score:2, Insightful)
Oh, and that invalidates your second point too. You don't buy songs at Virgin or Tower because there is no mechanism for uploading songs from your iPod to your computer (according to Apple anyway). However when renting, Apple does not need to provide a way to keep it on your computer. You will want
Re:An outcry from the DVD pressers? (Score:2)
you mean the makers of optical disks? formats come and formats go as far as they are concerned.
Re:drop it in a kiosk dock (Score:2)
about the time it'll take to pay for it.
One reason to kill the DVD... (Score:2)
No more lists, no more waiting, no more "guaraneed or it's free". Just get your sh*t when, how and where you want it.
Downloading is most convenient of all, though not the most cost-effective. DVD rental is cheaper, but things can be out of stock. Case in point: I got hooked on "Lost". Downloaded the first couple of episodes from season one last Xmas after getting my iPod video. Watched them a