forget verisign and netflix
Scoble says Verisigns new movie download service is a Netflix killer. Dave says he's wrong. The fact is they're both wrong.
If you watched any football in the past few weeks you already know the answer of who's the new king in movie rentals. Yes, Blockbuster. A company most certainly left for dead some time ago. I thought they would never catch on, but apparently having their stock price go into the toilet finally woke them up. For the past few weeks you simply can't watch a football game without seeing their new ads.
The ads advertise their new offer which is a Netflix like offering bundled with traditional stores. So if you have some movies from the internet service, but tonight you want to watch a movie you can go to a store and drop off the old movies. No need to put them back in the mail if you're in a rush. No penalties, no problems, no waiting.
I believe this will be huge. Who hasn't had some old Netflix sitting around on a Saturday and wishing you hadn't been so lazy and dropped them in the box. But you didn't so you're stuck with old movies. Blockbuster just solved all your problems.
In fact I was so impressed with the ads and idea (as much the ads as the idea really) that I purchased some stock in Blockbuster last week and already have a double digit gain. The market likes this new push big time.
Don't get me wrong downloads are the future, but the future isn't now yet (huh?). In the short to mid-term physical movie services are still the way to go.