re:create, Wal-Mart, etc.

re:create Day 2 begins this morning. I had a horrible sleep. Tahni did as well. The early wake-up call didn’t help. Tahni decided to sleep in. It is her birthday today. She has that right. I couldn’t go back to sleep after the call.

USA Today reported this morning that Wal-Mart is going to begin offering movie downloads and television show downloads. Movies will release the same day as DVD’s and TV shows the day after they air.

Here is the catch: They only work on Windows and Vista based systems. You’re kidding me, right? Only available to the PC world? Can’t watch them on an iPod or a Mac?

I am laughing.

I don’t know who dreamed up this marketing plan in the boardroom of Wally World. But they should be fired.

I predict the following:

1. They will need to reach the Mac world if they want to survive. Painting with large brushstrokes here, Mac users rule the digital media download world. By the time WalMart figures out that Vista doesn’t have all it’s bugs worked out and no one wants to carry around their 15 pound PC so their kids can watch Dora the Explorer, another chain of stores will “Target” the Mac world and come out fighting.
2. They will need to think about how to include Bonus Features if they want to compete with the DVD world. Deleted scenes, commentaries, and extras are an important part of the DVD release. My friends quote the deleted scenes from Talladega Nights more than the actual movie. Shake and Bake.
3. Netflix will jump on the bandwagon and set the standard. Perhaps they will offer a subscription with a cue of films. When the movie is released, it downloads for you as soon as you log on if it is in your cue. I predict Blockbuster will follow in their footsteps. It will become an all-out ad war on television and we will all laugh as we watch The Office on our iPods.

Then again, I could be wrong.

Nah.