Walmart Wants to Put Your DVD Collection on Their Cloud
The next time you pick up a DVD at your local Walmart, you might get asked if you also want a copy in the cloud.
Walmart snapped up cloud-based video streaming service Vudu over two years ago, a service that even in 2010 was a bit cutting edge. Through Vudu, customers can rent or own, then stream thousands of movie titles through web-connected TVs and Blu Ray players. Since last August their site works just fine on iPads, too.
Knowing they've already made a pretty penny from you on a new DVD or Blu Ray purchase, Walmart wants to snag a few extra bucks by offering you ownership of the same title, if available, on Vudu. Titles available for this service will run an extra $2 for standard definition, and $5 for Blu Ray titles.
As marketing schemes go, it's a no-brainer, and will fly just fine with mid-tech customers who see this as a cool new option to show off to friends and family. It's also a viable option if you're worried about your kids scratching up the DVD five seconds after the shrink wrap has been removed.
For those who are intimately familiar with online media storage and retrieval, however, this might not seem such a great deal. After all, increasingly we see movies being sold in a combined package of DVD/Blu Ray/digital copy, allowing customers to grab both popular hard copy versions, and a cloud storage solution through iTunes, all for one price. Walmart movies purchased with the Vudu add-on will only be available for viewing through their site.
With iTunes being a free Mac or PC download and the widespread popularity of iOS devices, along with the extra price-point Walmart is seeking, I can see a lot of folks considering passing on this feature.
Continued on the next page
Follow Technorati