[78-L] Amazon Quickie and death of DVD

[Michael Biel]

Here's a nifty happening.  I was pulling up in front of the house and my 
cell phone rings from Leah.  She had seen an Amazon upcoming Black 
Friday listing saying a "fab deal Four you" that was going to open up in 
a few seconds.  She gave me a count-down as I got to the house.  I was 
wondering why she was insisting that she HAD to be there when it became 
available.  Now I know.  It was the Beatles Stereo remaster box for  
99.99 down from 177.  I said "Yeah get it."  She clicks on it as I get 
in the door.  It's in the cart and I figured I'd check out.  She 
refreshes the page and says "Holy Crap!  It says 56% claimed!  Should I 
check out?"  She checked out and I was still logging in on my computer.  
THREE MINUTES after it went on sale it was Sold Out and I would not have 
gotten onto the page in time if she wasn't onto it already.  Talk about 
being TRAMPLED on Black Friday!  

But here's another thing.  I just got back from, among other places, 
WalMart.  They had a Maganavox BluRay player for $78 in the early bird 
specials before 11 AM and it was sold out on-line.  I was there at 1 PM 
and our store still had over 20 of these and the price was STILL $78.  
Maybe people are not THAT interested?   (I didn't get one because  I 
need one that can be region code hacked.   The LG combo HD-DVD/BluRay I 
already have CAN be hacked, but now Leah needs a hackable one.)

BUT, despite those machines not being sold out,  I think the 
tipping-point price of BluRay players has been met, and this is now 
official as far as I am concerned: THE DVD IS DEAD.  BluRay will replace 
it 75% in less than 2 years, and 100% in three.   Downloads might kill 
off both BluRay and CD in five.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com