“Who The Heck Is Gonna Pay $1.99 To Watch TV On A 2.5-Inch Screen?!”
October 17th, 2005
Answer: A lot of people.
In a world where millions of people pay $1.99 for a 30-second ringtone, paying $1.99 for a commercial-free episode of your favorite hour-long television show seems like a bargain.
In a world where you can take that show stored on your iPod and play it through your 19-inch plasma computer screen, $1.99 to catch up on that episode of your favorite show that you missed seems like a bargain.
In a world where you can carry 150 hours of video in the palm of your hand, how cool would it be to be carrying 70 full-length concerts by your favorite bands that could be played in video mode and/or audio mode? (No, you can’t buy full-length concerts on iTunes … yet.)
Takeaway for marketers: Make no mistake about it, this is gonna be big.
October 18th, 2005 at 5:54 pm
I so rarely argue with you I find this shocking. I do not think people will want to view films or TV (different than shorts/featurettes of some kind) on a 2.5 in screen for long. I think it will go the way of the 8 track, and that the screen will be used for ads; original mobisode content and other things, perhaps, but not this. Convenience cannot be all it’s about and my gut tells me this is a fad re: tv episodes or full length films are concerned. How much you wanna bet?