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Economist Looks at the Digital Home
spisska writes "There is an excellent article this week in The Economist looking at the "digital home" and at what cable, telecom, internet, and hardware companies are doing to create the new entertainment nerve centers of the future. The article touches on what exists today (CDs, DVDs, etc), what is in production or preparation from various companies (MS MCE, IPTV, music downloads, etc), DRM, interoperability, and competing standards, among other topics. Although there is no mention of MythTV or Linux, it is a pretty solid analysis of the market as it is now and concludes that vendors are trying to hype a market into existence where there is no great consumer demand. A choice quote: "'If consumers even know there's a DRM, what it is, and how it works, we've already failed,' says Peter Lee, an executive at Disney". The article concludes: "As John Barrett, research director at Parks Associates, says, 'it seems that we've concocted a new variant of the 'paperless' office.' This, you recall, was the consensus a decade or so ago among technophiles (but almost nobody else), that computer technology would save our forests by freeing us from having to read and write on paper. Today's variant, says Mr Barrett, is 'no more tapes, CDs, DVDs, discs.' In other words, expect them to be around for a very long time to come.""
Is the paper/plastic industry putting up any sort of a battle against these media giants who wish to move away from the use of paper/plastic? Unless these paper/plastic companies successfully transition themselves into manufacturers of these devices meant to replace paper/plastic, they may take a significant financial hit.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
In other words, the whole plan depends on defrauding the customer into buying something other than what they were told they were getting.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
It's going to be how little people have to work to use it. Nobody wants another gadget that they can't figure out how to use. That said, nobody wants DRM that won't work properly. Everybody (including geeks) wants things to work out of the box and that's where these companies should focus on.
They should make lots of mockups. They should get people to let them install this crap in their homes and see how they like or dislike it. The company that rushes some central media player that can only do what my modded xbox can do now isn't going to do well. It's going to take a lot of testing to get the final product done right.
My guess is Apple might come out with some interesting products and I'm going to be watching out for what they do.
You raise an interesting point: the secure storage of digital data over long periods of time.
Indeed, traditionally when one must store a paper document of value (ie. a will, a deed, bonds, etc.) they are deposited in a bank's safety deposit box. There would have to be an equivalent for the digital world.
While the data could be dropped onto a tape or a hard drive, which is then deposited into an existing safety deposit box, such a solution would be less than ideal. Future technology may not be able to interact with the tape or drive. The storage device may degrade over time. Indeed, there are many problems.
We are now finding out that CD-R's do not last more than a few years before they start losing data, if not becoming completely unreadable. So while a financially viable solution, and most likely future-compatible, they are unable to offer the durability required for archiving important digital documentation of an individual or even a small business.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
My next laptop will not have a CD reader/writer. E.g. To load a new O/S I'll download the bootable image onto a USB key. Or netboot. My music CDs are never taken out of their cases anymore. Same will happen to my DVDs, sometime. So all that off-line media which is only machine-readable will go. The article is wrong.
But paper? I carry a notebook and pen and will do so for a long time to come. No PDA for me. The article is right.
Paul Beardsell
The comments about how he just means "seamless" and "transparent" are nonsense. DRM is always seamy and murky. It becomes seamy and murky at the exact point when you try to lend your friend a recording and it won't play on their machine.
Or when you buy a new computer, copy all your stuff over, sell your old one, and find that you can't play your stuff because your new computer isn't authorized, and you can't authorize your computer because your old computer hasn't been deauthorized, and you can't deauthorize your old computer because you haven't got it.
What "transparent, seamless" DRM does is to conceal the real nature of the bargain from the customer until it is too late for it to affect their buying decision.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
The problem for the US (and Canada I would think) is we are much more spread out - Upstate NY, where I live, the closest work is often 25-40 miles away from where we live.
This is why telecommuting is so attractive. But it may also rejuvinate the mom and pop (or at least small) stores in the towns that are closer.
Gas prices like this will have a change on our society. Businesses that plan on having a store in a city to serve the surrounding community may see declining revenues as less and less people from the outlying communities (that can make up 40% or more of the potential customers) will drive in to shop or whatever.
I'm not sure what will happen, as gas prices continue to rise, but it's not really possible to move into cities either - lack of available housing, the crazy bubble etc, which makes it finanicially untenable.
Opera, Proxomitron-Grypen,GPG 0x0A1C6EE3
Gas prices like this will have a change on our society. Businesses that plan on having a store in a city to serve the surrounding community may see declining revenues as less and less people from the outlying communities (that can make up 40% or more of the potential customers) will drive in to shop or whatever.
However more people within walking distance will shop there. Usually when for whatever reason motorized travel is curtailed, in commmunities, small cities, and villages, town centers or squares are rejuvenated because they are within walking distance for many. It also works well when people work within a short walk or bike ride from where they live.
FalconShould there be a Law?