[78-L] Amazon Quickie and death of DVD

[David Lennick]

I presume the scene looked something like this?
http://www.seattlepi.com/fun/retail.asp
(November 27th strip)

dl

Michael Biel wrote:
> 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