Digital Distribution of Movies: Is it the next big thing?

If you have been covering MacWorld, you may have heard that Apple is starting a rental service through iTunes that is compatible with your computer, iPod, and Apple TV, which is their version of a set-top box to play movies through your TV. They are now fully joining into the mass of companies offering digital downloads where you do not actually have the physical media, as it is stored on a hard drive or other device. Many companies (Microsoft, Sony, Amazon, etc.) are touting that digital distribution is the way of the future, and that physical media will still be dead. There are a growing number of people who believe this will be happening soon. Most of the people who do frequent blogs like Engadget, Gizmodo, and other technology blogs. Now, what they fail to realize is that most of the general population does not have internet connections fast enough to accommodate such requirements to easily make use of digital downloads. The only digital download that is actually thriving is illegal downloads, and those will never go away. Why pay for something, when you can have it free? That is why DRM will never work as well.

So, before you go touting that digital downloads will replace disks, you ought tell your neighbor who still uses dial-up he needs to upgrade. Here on the internet, people love to voice their opinions, much as I am doing now, but for most people voicing their opinion, their words and reality are often in contrast.

Furthermore, even if you wanted digital downloads of movies and such to become mainstream, our connection speeds need to increase as well. Oh well, you need to just get FIOS right? Fiber optics; delivering the dream. Yeah, if you live in the four house that it currently serves.

Finally, people need to realize that even though you have the latest and greatest, most of America does not. My grandparents still have a VCR and only 1 DVD player in the house. Don't even ask them about high definition anything, whether it is disks or movies or TVs. This is the current state of America. You shouldn't hide behind your Xbox and Monster energy drinks. Come out and really take a look. Then, go to your favorite blogging site and rant away in their comments section. Show everyone how cool you are, by thrashing an article, because there was a spelling mistake or the person being interviewed is not good looking enough.

Ok, enough of that. Listen, I just don't think America is ready for this future just yet. I applaude Apple, Sony, Microsoft, and others for bringing us the future now, but actually it is not quite here yet. So, in the end we will find out if the spice will flow.