Potholes on the road to the couch potato
I've had a couple of conversations with work colleagues over the past few months in which the colleagues seemed to be surprised that I still rent videos from a physical DVD store rather than obtain them on-line. Prior to those conversations, I don't think it had even occurred to me that I could watch videos on-line — mainly, I guess, because I had a routine that I felt was working well and was in no need of change. I've also only fairly recently obtained an Internet connection plan with sufficient speed and capacity that I can actually watch movies over it.
When I later took a look at what was on offer at the on-line video store operated by Internet service provider, I found that said store features a much narrower range of movies than does my local DVD rental store, and that it charges more for each rental. On The Conversation last week, Matthew Bailes also writes about the monopoly-like profits that computer companies can extract once they've trapped customers in the company "ecosystem". (So much for the notion that on-line retailers would run rings around old-fashioned bricks-and-mortar retailers by eliminating the need to pay rent, maintain capital stock, or pay service staff.)
A number of the commenters on Bailes' article ask the obvious question: why, then, use the on-line service?
One comment on Bailes' article observes that "if there really is a monopoly, it's only a monopoly to people who are desperate to avoid going to a shop." I imagine some people might reasonably be in that situation if they live in a remote area, or they have restricted mobility, or, as I recently overheard another work colleague remark, it's raining and they can't be bothered to walk to the video store. But none of those are true of my work colleagues or I — nor of Matthew Bailes, as far as I can tell — and the weather would have be pretty serious indeed to prevent me walking ten minutes to my local store.
There was a time, I guess, when I'd buy bleeding-edge technology without a lot of thought as to whether or not it really was the most efficient way of meeting my needs. I think I was motivated in part by the hobby value of experimenting with such technology, and in part by the price: given that I have the skills and patience to set up a TV card in Linux, say, why pay for a stand-alone television even if the latter would be much simpler and easier?
I can't see much hobby or educational value in purchasing slick consumer products like Apple TV and Bigpond Movies, though. In fact, walking to the shop is more like a hobby these days: I enjoy the exercise, the contact with my local area, and the experience of looking around at all of items for rent or sale. And, thanks to the school of economics attended by Apple, Telstra and others, it even seems to be more financially rewarding.
