Mobile Movies
I just saw this on SmartMobs - movies for your PocketPC:
With the help of Pocket PC Films, a Californian company, you don't have to go to the theater to see a movie. You just need your PDA, according to this CIO Magazine's story, "Now Playing -- Anytime, Anywhere." "The company devised a technology to compress filmed content from CD-ROMs into a format PDAs could display. Pocket PC Films now distributes 25,000 titles, priced from $9.99 to $49.99." Check this column for more details. I have a hard time imagining someone watching a 2-hour film on such a small screen. But here is Pocket PC Films movie store if you're interested.
This is pretty great. It's all about the rights to the content. Just like Gameboy games - the content is out there, if you can just get the rights to repackage it for mobile devices and sell it, you'll make a million. Movies are a classic killer app. Sign the deals to sell the movies and then resell to your heart's content. PocketPC Films has 25,000 titles already and to me that's a good start... but I just checked and most are crap... but it's the right idea. Maybe selling the software/service to the studios/distributors is a better idea.
I'm sure there's going to be a hesitation on Hollywood's part. The crackers are out there and if the movies are small enough to fit on your PPC, they're small enough to share easily via Kazaa. Sure you can download DVDs now, but it takes 8 hours or so and the whole process is fraught with failure. Movies in this format, I'm sure, are small and easily copyable.
But still - with some DRM tech and fair pricing this type of thing would rule on my mobile phone. RULE.
-Russ