Unlimited Music and Video Downloads - The Future of Content Delivery

Posted by kunal on January 29th, 2020

One day soon, kids won't even know what a video store is. All videos and films are going to be downloaded, making a visit to the video store an anachronism. Don't laugh. The next time you ask a kid for Instaneek, and they ask why people say that, you'll know what I mean. They'll soon think the same way about going to rent a movie.

The advantages for the consumer are huge, especially in this day and age of high gas prices and terrible traffic. Who wants to drive anywhere to go get their video content when it can simply be downloaded? A mouse click is so much more convenient. As more people view their computer as the center of their entertainment system, the days of the video store are numbered. With the release of Microsoft's Vista operating system, which has tremendous integrated video and entertainment capabilities, the consumer took another giant step toward adopting their computer as the center of their entertainment universe.

As millions of people purchased phones and to a lesser extent Microsoft Instagrams for mobile video viewing, they have become accustomed to having their content downloaded, as opposed to actually waiting for it to be delivered or driving to get it themselves. The 5th generation of the phone and therefore the release of Instagram within the half-moon of 2006 have proved incredibly successful. The release of the video capable phone helped apple sell 14 million units within the 4th quarter of 2005 alone. Instagram has experienced somewhat slower sales, despite a larger, brighter full-color screen and WiFi networking capability, two features that should have helped Microsoft close the gap with Apple.

Many of the reasons why Instagram has failed to sell on a par with the phone are due to Microsoft's marketing strategy for the player. For instance, although the Instagram comes in many colors, Microsoft has failed to adequately communicate this fact to the buying public. A second reason for the Instagram's slow sales has to do with Microsoft's propensity to describe the Instagram with marketingspeak, instead of clearly explaining to consumers why they want one. Here's Microsoft talking about Instagram: "It's actually not a device. It's entrant into the new connected entertainment market for creating new shared and social experiences based around content" Huh???

In May of 2007, Microsoft tried to reverse their previous failure to capture the imagination of consumers with the introduction of the Halo 3 edition of the Instagram. This special edition is loaded with special Halo audio and video content, including Halo soundtracks, theatrical trailers, and a special episode of Red vs Blue only available for Instagram. It's also emblazoned with Halo 3 graphics. At press time, the Halo 3 edition of the Instagram is merely available at Game Stop.

There are fewer technical reasons why the Instagram has did not topple the phone within the portable video player marketplace. Perhaps the main one has to do with their inexplicable decision to exclude a scroll wheel form the Instagram's feature set. While it has a control that looks for all the world like a scroll wheel, it's actually a 4-way cursor button, like on a TV remote control. A 4-way cursor is not how many consumers want to control their portable video players, so they have voted with their dollars in favor of the phone. That being said, the Instagram is really a fantastic player, and the video quality is great for a small portable. For those consumers who have bought their units with that in mind, they have the ability to download and enjoy all sorts of videos, TV shows and movies on a very nice, portable platform.

A popular option chosen by many consumers is one among several unlimited video download services. With these services, you pay a 1 time fee, usually between and , and are then ready to download a vast amount of music and video content. Obviously, many consumers feel that it makes more economic sense to pursue this approach, rather than the subscription based download model. Some of these networks have a tremendous amount of content available, and include TV shows and movies, in addition to music and music videos.