Ok, So I am totally stealing the title idea from TechCrunch, but it looks like physical media is on it’s way out the door with the news that Netflix is testing Streaming Only plans in certain areas.. It seems that Hollywood no longer wants us to hold on to their movies, and for everything to be in the cloud, so that there is no hard copies in the wild to be copied and passed around. Now this seems a little ahead of it’s time, but this idea is completely plausible. With the announcement of the MacBook Air, and there be no physical CD in the package, it seems Apple wants to get rid of the physical media as well. They don’t want to get rid of the software, as it was also announced the Mac App Store would soon be online as well. The idea there is that we will all be able to keep up with the latest via the updates there, and never have to insert another CD or DVD again. Even Windows is looking to update to a disc-less software store in the future.
The idea seems a little far fetched, but not completely crazy at this point. I was reading the newsletter that GDGT puts out and Ryan Block made a really good point, on the fact that will there be enough of the big companies to join forces with Apple and t he 70/30 split (read the story here). I agree with him and say that big companies like Adobe won’t want to join forces and take such a large chunk away from the business that they already generate on their own. The other issue is that these big companies are being ousted by smaller companies that offer open and free solutions that many consumers will easily choose over paying money for something that can be done for free.
I see the idea that Apple is trying to do and the idea that Netflix is trying to do, and somehow will gain majority rule in the near future. As the majority is usually stupid, they will follow what Apple will tell them to do. If Apple (Steve Jobs) tells you having CDs is bad, then we will all believe. We see this evident now in the fact that Steve (whoops, Apple) tells us that Flash is bad, even though a LOT of web out there is flash based, but it isn’t supported on their most popular devices. We now see evidence of this with the new Mac Book Airs shipping. Now the caveat is that we can go and install the software after we do it manually, but they aren’t going to help the cause.
I just think the major players fighting against piracy are having a secret party somewhere and are celebrating that we soon won’t be able to own a disc of any kind..
RustyG
