Here's one for you:
They really seem to be wanting to chase the NetFlix market - but for the most part their service addresses those people with a) fast connections; and b) enough investment in technology to get the video stream and surround audio to their TV. Either that, or they're assuming people will leave the living room and start watching all this wonderful content in their Aeron chairs... j/k
For the most part, I don't believe too many people are watching movies on their computer monitors (well, I do, but then again I'm a freelance animator and spend ALL my time with my renderfarm - and I really don't know too many people who have the kind of gear I do), most would like to enjoy time with family and friends and sit in the living room... and from what i can tell, most people don't have PCs in the living room.
So if you're like MOST people (and I'm thinking of all my friends who aren't complete nerds like I am that just like to put in a DVD and watch a movie) I wonder what will be the draw that successfully gets you away from Netflix/Blockbuster rentals? After all, with Netflix etc you have a remote to control your media (ie the DVD player!).
Perhaps they have upcoming co-marketing agreements with media-server manufacturers - "buy a year's worth of service and save $50 on the XXX Media Server".. maybe they'll make their own settop box that comes with the service just like your cable-box... I mean, somehow you need to give people the same level of comfort and control over their media, right? How will this be achieved without the ability to use a remote control?
Ooh, here's a good one.. port the PowerGrid program (for those who haven't tried this service yet, that's what gives you the real-time downloads) to the XBOX360... now there's a captive audience!
Or maybe we'll all just give in and get some nice, long cables and plug our computers up to the TV sets.. of course, then the remote won't work and we'll have to go to our PC every time we want to pause the dern movie...
Any thoughts on this?
I'm in at .06 and happily long! Glad to see this technology coming together, but this just popped into my mind so I thought i'd see what people thought!
PS I do believe these guys have done their research, so I'm sure they have the strategy worked out for the current market conditions.. I'm just gettin old & confused :)