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Monday, January 4, 2010

Coming soon: Movies that are virtually portable?

As the entertainment industry looks forward to its interconnected, digital future, one of the biggest challenges they face is content portability. Movie studio execs and entertainment retailers (like Best Buy) fear that consumers will find online-delivered content easy to resist, because it lacks portability. (If I own a DVD of a movie, I can take that disk to a friend’s house, watch it on my own system, or take it with me to be viewed on a plane via laptop. If I download a movie from Blockbuster.com or i-Tunes, that film must generally be viewed on the system to which it was downloaded.)

During the Computer Electronics Show later this month, a consortium of entertainment and electronics executives will be meeting to explore the development of a standard digital format, which would allow the consumer to access her/his digital content from virtually any device, anywhere. (See more on the matter in this story from the New York Times.)

Implications: Companies have long modified or introduced products and services in response to consumer demand. But the concept of Consumer Control continues to evolve… influencing the very terms of a transaction, and how products and services will be sold.

In what was has your company allowed--or even invited--the consumer to exert their influence over the purchase experience?

Mike Anderson

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