Hello, and Welcome to Movie Phone: Mobile Apps Duke It Out
- By Eliot Van Buskirk
- March 24, 2010 |
- 7:00 pm |
- Categories: Media, Mobile Internet
Video rental companies made big moves this week in the race to deliver movies to phones. But as compelling as thought of a movie in your pocket alone may be, this isn’t just about delivering content to handset. The companies vying for your mobile movie dollars want to tie you to an ecosystem they hope will change your habits — and loyalties — at home, at work and in between.
Big names like Blockbuster and News Corp. announced new initiatives at the CTIA conference in Las Vegas, and so did lesser-known player mSpot, originally a ringtone company that’s looking for new revenue sources as the ringtone market declines.
All of them believe that owning mobile is a ticket to winning the other three screens — computers, televisions and tablets — because viewers want to pick up on one screen where they left off on another, just as they do when reading an Amazon Kindle e-book.
If they are right, the battle plan seems fairly clear: Winning the smartphone puts everything into play and makes the mobile device the key entry point to a video-on-demand lifestyle, way beyond its mundane ability to manage rental queues on the go.
As to download versus stream? Either approach has its advantages and drawbacks. Streaming offers immediate playback — when it’s available, and it is unavailable without a decent data connection. Downloading ensures a seamless experience, but there is that wait …
Blockbuster, once known for its Walmart-like effect on mom-and-pop video stores, is now just one of many up-and-comers in the digital-delivery space. The company recently launched an internet-based video-on-demand service to augment its disc-based services (a disc-by-mail service, a dwindling number of retail stores and Blu-ray- and DVD-burning kiosks that interface with location-aware mobile apps so you can have movies custom-burned at a nearby store). It extended that approach to the phone this week with the launch of Blockbuster Movie Store, a rental-and-purchase app for the T-Mobile HTC HD2, and eventually other smartphones.
Not to be outdone, News Corp.’s Fox Mobile Group announced its own television and movie streaming and downloading app called Bitbop for iPhone, Droid and Blackberry that will charge a $10 monthly subscription fee, as opposed to the single-film fees proposed by mSpot and Blockbuster.
We let the executives behind opposing forces in the “movie phone” battle — Daren Tsui, CEO of the streaming-only mSpot and Scott Levine, the vice president in charge of Blockbuster’s download-only app — duke it out in a pair of interviews with Wired.com. Here’s how they stack up on the major issues facing the delivery of movies to phones, leaving aside for the moment contractual squabbling with the studios, which is a whole different ball of wax (more on that below):
Blah, blah, blah. There is nothing any company can do that will be “revolutionary” enough to make me stick to their products or services. Now please note that this is NOT an ad for iPhone, because I know there are many alternatives out there. Having said that, I can now say this - there are very few moments in my life where I’ll find myself in a position to watch a movie on my phone. I fly once, MAYBE twice a year, and that is the ONLY time I’d ever watch a movie on my phone. iTunes has all the movie rentals I could ever want and I cannot see any reason to go with any other service.
I’m sure that if you are as casual a user as I am, your device and subsequent services are perfect for you - and if you find yourself scanning and searching for the latest and greatest in mobile movie technology, you really need to buy a television.
Hopefully their APP won’t end up like the iFart. http://bit.ly/mr-ifart-didnt-fart-but-plead-to-iphone
Here in the UK, there is a cinema ad which runs just before the main feature which basically says ‘don’t let a mobile phone ruin your movie’ - ie turn it off! Maybe it should be extended to mean don’t watch movies on a tiny smartphone screen, use something bigger!
Any one remember what david lynch said about watching movie on iPhone?
God, you’re so right. I’m on a long haul flight this afternoon. Thanks to you I won’t forget to carry on my 42″ plasma and a blue-ray player. You guys rule.
@bobba Actually I’d pay to see you try to get that through TSA.