IEEE Blogger Steven Cherry predicts that movies on disk, be it DVD, HD-DVD or Blu-ray, will become a thing of the past as they are replace by movie download services from Apple and Netflix.
And so when you look past the Blu-ray victory, the latest developments in digital movies are all about downloads, not disks.
At MacWorld, which directly followed CES, Steve Jobs announced a new download service for renting movies. As with music, Apple has struck deals with the major movie studios. You can begin a show on your computer or television and finish watching it on your iPod or iPhone. The service started in February with 1000 movies, costing US $2.99 to $3.99 each.
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So do we really need to trudge out to Blockbuster, Best Buy, or Wal-Mart for a disk? Or wait for the now-familiar red envelope from Netflix? A lot of companies, including Apple and Netflix itself, are betting no. Sony and the other movie studios, even though they get a cut from movie downloads, hope the competition is wrong. I don’t think they are.
One thing I’ve noticed that is missing from the online/download movies is the extra features that are usually on the DVDs. Plus downloaded movies lack the easy of portability that disks provide.
