Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Format War, Neophobia, and Ranting


With 35 angry comments and counting on CE Pro, I'm clearly the winner of the title "Most Pissed Off Fanboys, Ever."


While we're on this topic, I just got this in my email from an industry insider:


I still think that it’s a sour victory for Bluray even if it does win over HD-DVD. Everyone that I’m talking with is looking at downloadable and apparently Apple has been getting more than a couple of enduser enquiries from Canada. When I can buy online that’ll be the last time that I’ll go for a hard copy.


I get a kick out of the people denouncing my predictions “because home connections aren’t fast enough for HD downloads.” Maybe today that's somewhat true. Tomorrow, not so much. Not to mention the people who think that just because they like having a disc in their hands, and owning it as a physical object, that the studios will always cater to that tactile need of theirs. Hmm... no physical product = vastly reduced overhead = bigger studio profits. That's a pretty simple business decision.


Know-it-alls badgering me about download speeds and how nice it is to hold a disc in your hand are clearly descended from people who a hundred years ago argued about whether pig suede or calfskin made a better buggy whip.





*Music lovers used to really like the cover art that came with vinyl albums, for all the good it did them.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cover art indeed used to be an attraction. Going not quite so far back as vinyl, some people were even known to "only buy CDs with textiles in the cover art." No, I am not making that up. But since it was part of the marketing, at least sometimes, how will download marketers compensate? There are dark forces out there saying ISPs should be forced to cut off anyone downloading in violation of copyright. (It sounds as if those forces would not mind a little recreational drawing and quartering, too.) What impact will that have on the ability to market "legal" downloading?

junger said...

I agree. Holding a disc is silly. Consumers obviously got over it with their iPods, and they will with HD video, too.