Cringely on Blockbuster-iPod Video Distro Plan

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.'"

Comments

Re:Cringely's on crack today.

[FirstTimeCaller]

... 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.

Doubtful Business Model

[davidbofinger]

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. [...] For Apple the point here is to sell iPods to people who might not otherwise every buy one (my Mom, for example), to bring digital downloads to people who don't have broadband or even a computer, and to make it all incredibly easy.

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.

More on Burst.com

[dgrgich]

Notice that Burst.com also announced that they are waiting another month to file their counter-claim to Apple's original suit.

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.

Re:Doubtful Business Model the prequel

[microcars]

"...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."

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:Cringely's on crack today.

[tshak]

I "only" have 1.5Mbps downstream connection. I don't want to wait 3-5 hours to download a high quality video. I also don't want my connection virtually hosed for half an evening. I would rather take a few minutes to walk or drive to the nearest blockbuster and load it up in less than a minute. I would probably need a connection with a solid 8Mbps downstream before I would consider the download times reasonable. Then again, for HD-DVD content, we're probably talking about 20GB+ in which case 8Mbps is way too slow. It's a great ideal to download content over broadband, but the infrastructure just isn't there.