The Shawshank Redemption & Mobile Movies for the Mad
I love The Shawshank Redemption. In all seriousness, it's one of my all-time favourite films (in my top 5, at least) and I think everyone should see it. Why, then, am I slagging off its most recent re-release? Read on, dear readers, read on.
First off, I'm not talking about last year's liimited theatrical release. No, The Shawshank Redemption has the rather dubious honour of being the first full-length movie to be commercially released on cel phones, courtesy of Nokia, Grenada Ventures, and Rok Player.
What's not to like? Take the price, for starters. Though several online news sources say the movie is supposed to cost £16.99, Rok Player's own online store has it at £19.99. For our friends across the pond, this translates to about $38.00 in American money, a preposterous amount of money to see a movie. Now, it's true that the UK things tend to cost a bit more, but this is still well out of proportion. According to Amazon.co.uk, you can buy a normal DVD of The Shawshank Redemption for £12.99, or a 3-disc special edition for £15.99. Those are the new prices, both DVDs can be bought used for quite a bit less. Who in their right mind would pay £20 to watch a movie on their phone when they could get a full DVD for £7 ($14) less?
Then there's the ergonomics of the thing. I can understand the concept of mobile video content to some extent. Watching the latest Kylie Minogue video might make a 4-minute wait for the bus more bearable, for example. But watching a two-and-a-half-hour epic like The Shawshank Redemption on a tiny mobile screen seems like a labourious task, even for serious fans of the film.
Will such lengthly mobile content ever take off among consumers? Only time will tell. But with a price point much higher than the better-looking and -sounding DVD of the exact same film, my guess is that Rok Player will find few takers. One of the most serious marketing mistakes is releasing a product without asking that all-important question: "Who in their right mind would buy this?"
First off, I'm not talking about last year's liimited theatrical release. No, The Shawshank Redemption has the rather dubious honour of being the first full-length movie to be commercially released on cel phones, courtesy of Nokia, Grenada Ventures, and Rok Player.
What's not to like? Take the price, for starters. Though several online news sources say the movie is supposed to cost £16.99, Rok Player's own online store has it at £19.99. For our friends across the pond, this translates to about $38.00 in American money, a preposterous amount of money to see a movie. Now, it's true that the UK things tend to cost a bit more, but this is still well out of proportion. According to Amazon.co.uk, you can buy a normal DVD of The Shawshank Redemption for £12.99, or a 3-disc special edition for £15.99. Those are the new prices, both DVDs can be bought used for quite a bit less. Who in their right mind would pay £20 to watch a movie on their phone when they could get a full DVD for £7 ($14) less?
Then there's the ergonomics of the thing. I can understand the concept of mobile video content to some extent. Watching the latest Kylie Minogue video might make a 4-minute wait for the bus more bearable, for example. But watching a two-and-a-half-hour epic like The Shawshank Redemption on a tiny mobile screen seems like a labourious task, even for serious fans of the film.
Will such lengthly mobile content ever take off among consumers? Only time will tell. But with a price point much higher than the better-looking and -sounding DVD of the exact same film, my guess is that Rok Player will find few takers. One of the most serious marketing mistakes is releasing a product without asking that all-important question: "Who in their right mind would buy this?"
posted by Andrew Lenahan at 6:11 PM
1 Comments:
GEEZ! Another briliant product for the lesser informed...when you don't have less-on....you have...Well you get the picture! (or in my case...hell no! I will NOT ever ever ever get THAT picture). Thats worse then "Video Now"!
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