You have to hand it to Blockbuster, having to deal with pecuniary losses, layoffs and watching rival Netflix take all its customers. Then there is Apple, Sony, Google, Microsoft and others all offering online TV for free or at a low cost. Whats the ailing monolith supposed to do?
Well, they seem to be coming back with a vengeance. The company, from grounds at the CES show last month are throwing a myriad of new developments at the consumer. From DVD rental kiosks to internet streaming straight to your Live Internet TV, mobile device or heavy. You can even visit your local store and downloading movies to a memory get.
“If you think of a movie, we’ll get it for you,” Bruce Anderson, senior vice president and general manager of Blockbuster OnDemand, said at the show.
Even the kind of antiquated concept of rental a DVD gets a makeover. If you cannot find the dvd you want in a Blockbuster store then they will mail it to you – but without any each month contract setup. Dont want to target a physical product? Well, Blockbuster are expanding its internet video streaming service, allowing TV audience to buy or rent movies online. You can order a movie using your phone (yes, Blockbuster do have an iPhone app) then download it.
All eager ideas, but available elsewhere and is it actually just too little and too late? The company reports 2009 financial results later this month and has said it expects a net loss for the year of as much as $193 million.
Netflix are now ‘the’ DVD by mail company and Apple pretty much own the mobile phone tv market with its iPhone and coming iPad device. Game console streaming is henpecked by Microsoft, Sony and Netflix. Whilst the video rental kiosks from Redbox are a big hit too.
Can Blockbuster spell by just copying what everyone else has done? They need to start dominating a market or you can only see one outcome. Lets hope Blockbuster move a little quicker on this one.
Last dark i walked past my tv and saw the storage locker next to it gathering dust. The reason? Because i never go there anymore, and that cabinet holds my dvd collection. facile i have accessed them less and less to the point now where i never go there.
And its not just me, why pother renting a dvd by mail from Netflix or Blockbuster when you can download the movie of your lineament quicker with just as good timbre and not be tied to watching it on a dvd player.
Theres the Xbox, PlayStation 3 and Wii game consoles. Also quite ironically, you can send streams to your tv straight from the latest Blu-ray video players.
The DVD hasnt quite been killed off yet, Blu-ray is democratic and Netflix claim they will continue renting discs by mail for the forseeable future. But if there are many more occupy like me using the many options for internet movie streaming, im not sure how long that future will be.
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