This week brought news that Walmart has purchased Vudu, a one-time on-demand video device company that transformed its business to servicing connected TVs and Blu-ray players. As the largest seller of packaged home video in the country and one of the largest sellers of consumer electronics, Walmart clearly has an interest in maintaining its position as more video is consumed digitally, but also in establishing ties to the televisions and Blu-ray players that are featuring the Vudu service.
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One of the open questions surrounding the iPad that has quickly come to the fore in light of the recent Amazon-Macmillan brinksmanship is to what extent the device will jeopardize sales of e-readers. This is particularly true of the market-leading Kindle, upon the metaphorical shoulders of which Steve Jobs said Apple stood.
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The uneasy relationship between digital delivery and physical stores has a steadily improving history. In 2004, as its Virgin Megastores were struggling, parent company Virgin funded Virgin Electronics, which quickly disappeared in 2005 in the shadow of the iPod. (My colleague Stephen Baker is quoted in this CNET-authored obituary.) Nintendo’s Wi-Fi connection took it to the next level, providing connectivity in retail stores for the Nintendo DS, but didn’t provide much differentiation for retailers. And while Apple provides free Wi-Fi in its stores, it instead partnered with Starbucks to offer a customized iTunes store home page that offered lists of recent songs for purchase playing in its coffee shops.
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Consumer Technology | Ross Rubin, Executive Director, Industry Analysis | 
February 24, 2010 10:54 am | 
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