In all my years in a fledgling industry (videoconferencing) I have seen (and experienced first hand) my fair share of innovative companies that have, for one reason or another, flamed out.
The general trend is as follows: Great idea-->Lots of seed money-->Marketing Hype-->Success-->Failure to keep up with changing technology-->Market share loss-->Out of business. I can name some of the companies...but I won't.....the list is very long.
My point is: A company cannot rely on it's bread and butter forever, it must change to continue to thrive (hmmmm, this is why I am a starving blogger and not writing paper "white papers" for gobs of money, what a fool....oh well).
Netflix found their niche. You order a movie, they mail a DVD to your house, you watch it, and send it back. Simple and efficient. But, the end of that model of video delivery is close at hand (and also the need to drive to a store to pick up a DVD).
In the not too distant future, video will be delivered by the Internet (or via cable) using streaming video technology. No doubt that this will happen, it will just be a matter of time.
Yesterday, Netflix announced the availability of a streaming box. This box will cost about $100, will connect to the Internet and your television, and will be able to download movies from a vast collection of Netflix movies, via the Internet, which you can watch on your TV.
Netflix has seen the future, they have admitted they they need to embrace it, and is doing the right thing to stay ahead! Bravo.
The Netflix box is not the first on the market. It is similar to VUDU (which I have reviewed and used extensively, and love), and Apple TV (which, I believe, was first). This technology is still in it's infancy....over time the players will shake out and new brash start-ups will arrive. To survive....innovation must survive in these companies, and I have no doubt that the companies now involved will continue to innovate.
YeOldeTechy says: Pretty soon (a few years at most) DVD's will become a thing of the past, the life of Blu-Ray will not be as long as the standard DVD technology was, going to a store to rent a movie, or getting a movie in the mail, will ALL be put into a time capsule as examples of the way things used to be. Move over 8 track tapes and H.320 videoconferencing here comes DVD.
