Thursday, March 30, 2006
UMD dies, surprises no one
If Sony's PSP handheld console weren't enough of a disappointment to the gaming world, now comes word that the UMD format for movies is on the cusp of extinction. Which surprises me not at all. Why would anyone want to pay 30 bucks for a movie on a rinkidink little disc that can only be played on one piece of hardware, when for $15 or $20 you can buy the same movie on DVD, which can be played on home decks, laptops, and any number of portable players, and which feature all those juicy extras and bells and whistles? If anything surprises me, it's that so many studios committed to the format in the first place, before the PSP had had a chance to show its performance muscle in the marketplace. Presumably there was an expectation that the PS2's lightning would strike twice, and PSP would become the next iPod among portable doohickey fans. Oops. Oh well. I wouldn't get much out of watching a movie on a 4-inch screen. Can't imagine why anyone else would. But watch. I bet Steve Jobs will be the guy who makes it work — again.
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Imagine: iPod exclusive movies! Films you can only get if you have iTunes and/or a video iPod. Designed to use those two inches of space wisely, and downloadable for only 2 bucks!
Imagine, iPod-related film contests, making the best use of the tiny space that it'd be viewed on, to be shown exclusively on iTunes. The lack of space would be a challenge -- comparing a movie screen to an iPod is like comparing an orgasm to a papercut -- but I think there'd be a lot of entries, actually.
I'm actually surprised Steve Jobs hasn't done this with Pixar animated shorts, since he's one of their head guys -- all the Pixar shorts available on iTunes are available on DVD and video.
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