Would You Like Some Fries With That Download?

vodkamattvt writes The New York Times is reporting that the Walt Disney Company is hoping to replace happy meal toys with portable media players that could hold Disney movies, music, games, or photos. From the article: "The plan could work something like this: A customer enters a restaurant and buys a meal, receiving the portable media player and an electronic code that authorizes a partial download of a movie, video or other media file, which can be downloaded while in the restaurant, according to a United States Patent and Trademark Office application filed by Disney. Then, with each subsequent return, the customer earns more downloadable data, eventually getting an entire movie or game."

Comments

Don't count on it any time soon.

[thepotoo]

TFA says 30 months before approval... longer than that before you see one.

If you ask me, we'll never see these, simply because a wifi media/game player costs money. Know how much a DS or PSP costs? I'm sure McDonalds can't afford to give away a $200 gaget with the purchase of a $3 meal.

A free download for an existing DS/PSP might happen, but since none to many people have such, I dout it.

Re:Don't count on it any time soon.

[Marxist Hacker 42]

The price could be brought quite down to size with limited memory, a smaller B&W LCD screen (which allows for the limited memory because the movie file can be *much* smaller), and a specialized processor. Add to that the fact that the profit on a Happy Meal is already about $2, and specialized manufacturing, and you've got something that fits, probably for about $7-$10 manufacturing cost. Plus you wouldn't necessarily hand out a player with *every* Happy Meal- you ask the customer the age of the child, younger children (under 3) get the same crap plush toys they always did, preteens get the hard plastic crap toys, teenagers get asked if they *already have the player* in which case they get, instead of a new player, a card with a download URI on it for the next section of the file. Oh yeah, and adults ordering the "Smart Meals" still get debit cards preloaded with $1.....

Re:Don't count on it any time soon.

[IAmTheDave]

The price could be brought quite down to size with limited memory, a smaller B&W LCD screen (which allows for the limited memory because the movie file can be *much* smaller), and a specialized processor.

Unfortunately, and I may be alone, but this just sounds like more trash polluting the earth. McD's will give out or sell millions of these, people will be fascinated for mere minutes, and most will be discarded or throw into a toy chest, creating more silcion based hardly-biodegradable trash polluting the earth. It's like throw-away DVDs, except the chachki-effect may last a day or two longer.

Am I the only one that feels this way? Anyone else notice it's Disney again creating all the damn trash? (Or, the ideas that create all the damn theoretical trash?)

So I'm confused ....

[gstoddart]

How is this fundamentally different from, say, stamp cards which allow me a free sandwich/coffe/coke/whatever after I've collected a few stamps?

Fundamentally, this is a "method of providing customer reward for ongoing purchases" (coupled with a "mechanism to ensure repeat business by children").

Big deal, so it's a digital method. They've taken the concept of reward cards, thrown in Wifi, and are claiming to have done something patentable. This is just silly.

God I hope this patent is rejected.

Why Blame McDonalds?

[LWATCDR]

Little Kids can't drive themselves to McDonald's. The truth is that when I was small child we went to McDonald's maybe once or twice a MONTH. We got Pizza maybe once or twice a month. Parents need to quite blaming McDonald's for their kids eating habits. Cooking at home is the key to better health. It isn't just fast food. If you eat out every night at TGI Fridays, Ruby Tuesday, Olive Garden, Longhorn, or even a good high quality restaurant unless you you have a LOT of self control and order a salad you are going to get fat!
Restaurants are supposed to be treats. They have become a way of life.

what does the patent have to do with launch?

[SmallFurryCreature]

After all you got that whole patent pending line you see so often.

What seems a bit bigger of an obstacle is how do you get a device cheap enough that can actually handle playing a movie.

The cheapest device at the moment must be the GBA micro and that still is 100 dollars. Of course you could deduct Nintendo's and the retailers profit from it but how low could you possibly get?

Current happy toys are cheap chinese made plastic toys costing less then a dollar for the most ambitious campaigns.

Surely they know that any free tech device of any capacity is going to be hacked?

As for kids remembering to bring their player with them. A bit hopefull. Lending the device out temporarily would also be prone to cheating and asking for a deposit would effectively double the cues at the till for people wanting to give the device back after eating.

Nice idea but wouldn't it be simpler to put the media player in the table? That techonology can be readily bought from airline seats supliers.