After hearing reports about rental giant Blockbuster's uncertain future, I thought the company had only a few real options: scale down and maybe find a niche market to cater to or continue to try and compete with Netflix and fail. It turns out Blockbuster's last stand to remain relevant and vital in the movie rental business will take place on our cell phones.The chain has plans to begin offering movies and possibly TV shows on Motorola phones. With the availability of some TV content on Verizon phones through their V Cast service and the fact that iPhones have made watching video content on a cell phone easier and more enjoyable than ever before, Blockbuster's expansion into the territory of mobile phones seems like a natural progression. But Blockbuster's success in this venture rests not on whether consumers want to watch movies and TV on their phones, but whether or not they will pay for the service. And I seriously doubt that they will.
The fact is, those in search of video content have gotten pretty good at finding it for free. There is Hulu, YouTube, network websites, as well as a plethora of illegal streaming or file sharing websites (you know the ones). Does Blockbuster think that after having perfected the art of finding free movies and TV on the internet that consumers are now going to pay just to be able to watch a higher quality verison of Transformers on their small cell phone screen? Seems unlikely. However, I'm sure there is a segment of the population who feel the need to get digital content legally (but I kinda thought they were already using iTunes to download movies and TV shows...).
Time will tell whether or not Blockbuster's cell phone movie rental plan will be successful (it still seems unlikely that it will return them to a position of leadership in the rental industry), but can I say that I think watching movies on cell phones is really, really silly? I know it is 2009 and we have turned into fast-paced, on the go kinda people; but I just refuse to believe that watching The Office on a 3.5 inch screen on my subway ride is an enjoyable viewing experience. I know, I know, this is the future and I must comply with getting all of my entertainment in mini version. Resistance is futile and all that. But does anyone else have similar apprehensions about this or am I the only one just using my cell phone for communication purposes only?
Good point, and I agree - I personally wouldn't want to watch videos on my tiny phone, but don't forget, Apple's iTunes offer movies and TV shows to download. And I see people watching TV shows all the time on the subway.
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