"But everyone, particularly The Gotham Gal, pointed out the 2 hour download is a problem with this model."
I was curious about the wait time for the download and gave the service a test last week. I was watching the movie (good quality) within a minute. No hiccups or interruptions. Being an expat in Tokyo this service is extremely appealing, although Netflix with it's flat fee makes for an interesting choice.
brooksjordan
· 1 year ago
Yep, you don't have to wait until the movie downloads on iTunes. You just give it a head start, a couple of minutes, and then watch it while it downloads in the background.
Bruce Barber
· 1 year ago
Apple is flush with cash...
Should they BUY Netflix?
NICCAI
· 1 year ago
You'd need secure texting I would think. Texting to a wish list would be cool tho.
Mike Orren
· 1 year ago
I don't think text will be the way to go. Too easy to do graphical/enhanced info and too hard to parse freetext submissions.
Those of us with jailbroken Iphones already have a Netflix app where you can search, get info on films and reorder the queue.
You are conceptually correct, but it's already too easy to have a full featured app vs. a text mechanism.
Michael Sitarzewski
· 1 year ago
Why not just a mobile version of the iTunes store? Something along the lines of what Amazon has done for the iPhone.
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
texting is the universal mobile app. not everyone has iPhones. not everyone has phones with a fully functioning web browser. i have the latter on my curve and still enjoy texting on a phone more than browsing
MJ
· 1 year ago
The computer you use to rent the AMZN Unbox movie doesn't have to be the one that does the download and rendering. Personally, I order the movie from the office and, by the time I get home, the Media Center PC that's connected to our HDTV has already downloaded the movie. All that's required is that the computer I use for rendering be powered on when the order goes through on the site. Depending on that computer/device, that can be annoyingly noisy though.
SMS is a variation of that theme. With the iPhone, I'd expect Apple to let me use iTunes on that phone to order a dowload on their always on yet silent iTV at home.
ErikSchwartz
· 1 year ago
The larger problem here is the last mile infrastructure of broadband is not ready to handle the widespread adoption of IP delivery of full resolution video, let alone HD video. In a cable system, you share limited bandwidth (say 100 Mb/s) with everyone in your node. a few people in your node downloading HD is not a problem, hundreds (or thousands in some nodes) of people trying to download HD video and the system will grind to a halt.
It's not about the backbone, it's about the node in the neighborhood. Upgrading those will be very expensive. This is why TW cable is experimenting with metered bandwidth in Texas.
Rob Schoening
· 1 year ago
The problem with two hour downloads is the two hour download.
The only thing in technology that has increased slower than last-mile bandwidth is battery life.
It is unfortunate.
seth godin
· 1 year ago
jott.com lets you do this with books now, via voice.
Chris Dodge
· 1 year ago
Whit mentioned this above, but one doesn't have to wait 2 hours for the download. As long as you have a decent throughput (say 2mb/sec), you can watch the iTunes movie rental very quickly - in about a minute. HD rentals will be trickier.
As for your "remote control" request, many major services allow "triggering" downloads to different machines (e.g. being on a work machine and starting a download to a home computer). Using a cellphone would be interesting, but Authentication is a bit tricky and you don't want passwords being sent around in the clear. Maybe using DTMF via just phone lines would be a slightly better option.
Neekolas
· 1 year ago
I certainly hope that one of the apps apple releases with the SDK is some sort of AppleTV/Mac controller (a multi-touch version of Salling Clicker). That, combined with new airport express software for adding additional audio zones, could turn the Apple TV into a Sonos killer. Queueing up downloads would be much more elegant (and apple-ish) in a slick multi-touch UI than via sms too.
Christian Sterner
· 1 year ago
I like it, and I think the point being made is that text adoption has reached a point where anyone consumer-account-oriented on the web should adopt something like this. As for authentication, shouldn't a phone number be enough? If not, the download could still occur, but the end user would simply have to authenticate to make use of the download right? There is something there...these texts could not only trigger downloads, but populate shopping carts of favorite merchant sites etc.
I totally get the point that people should just be able to access their merchants via iPhone, but believe the point is that the adoption rate isn't nearly squared up with text messaging yet.
sdawara
· 1 year ago
This behavior is common in India where texting is popular. We (BookEazy.com India) do it for Movie Showtimes and tickets. It is an obvious application for users on the move. We've simplified it for users on the move to a great extent. Here is a Video demo of how we do it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7727tRTt4Y
Flyers can also purchase airline tickets (!!) over SMS. I am not entirely sure if this has taken off since it feels incredibly complex, with users required to remember multiple steps. http://www.yatra.com/YT/specialOffers/sms.html?...
- Santosh
harpos_blues
· 1 year ago
Fred,
Amazon has offered purchases via mobile phone for several years now. Please see:
As someone has mentioned in an earlier comment, SMS->vendor would require some sort of multi-part authentication between the phone user / wireless carrier and the vendor. In the US I think this would be a bit tricky for a third-party (ie start-up company) to negotiate such a service across multiple carriers.
The amazon wireless apps work really well. I haven't tested all the features recently, I'm interested to see if I can add items to my wish list.
Dhrumil
· 1 year ago
This would be such a sweet business model. Especially for twitter.
Text " buy: Flight of the Concords DVD"
Reply: "Are you sure you want to buy Flight of the Concords DVD?"
Text: "Yes"
Walnut Creek Kango
· 1 year ago
I love the text idea. If Apple goes with it, make sure they pay you royalties!
Aaron King
· 1 year ago
I send this comment from my blackberry. You are on to something good here! I'd offer that texting is not the only potion. Could also have a tighter integration for advanced devices, like google is doing with blackberry.
Tom Whitaker
· 1 year ago
Fred, early trials that we conducted indicate that buying via text message is a feature that users want. The key to the success of the model will be to allow consumers to buy from a variety of merchants not just Amazon, iTunes, etc...
A platform that allows brick and mortor retailers to offer a service like this could change the retail buying process significantly. (Twitter would be perfect) something I recently touched on in a conversation with Jack.
JetBlue is on the right track. But they don't have the text-to-buy and flights aren't exactly something you buy on impulse unless your a real road warrior.
johndodds
· 1 year ago
I'm interested to know people's thoughts on why texting has arrived in big way in the US this year. Over here (UK) and elsewhere texting exploded many years ago (albeit to the surprise of the phone companies) because of the huge price differential - my understanding is that this doesn't apply in the US, so what has happened this year to change things?
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
From my perspective its kids
Texting is email for my kids
If I want to get a message to them, that's how I do it
Once I get in that habit, the next is my wife, then friends, then twitter, etc
Ecommerce is a natural next step
fred
johndodds
· 1 year ago
Interesting - the ecommerce possibilities of phones have been mooted for a long time in Europe (especially scandanvia) and I'm sure they'll come but it's been very slow. There's a definite economising imperative amongst kids (they operate numerous phones in order to minimise bills and maximise free texts and calls) that would seem to me to be militating against it but I'm sure it will come eventually if only because of its micropayment potential.
Dan Weinreb
· 1 year ago
I would not want to simply send an SMS text message to order a product. I like to see information about the product (normally, in my web browser) to confirm that this is indeed the product that I had in mind, and also to decide whether to buy a used copy, etc. So I'd want to see an app doing at least a small subset of web browsing, so that I could get that feedback.
I also get my best book ideas when I'm out and about, usually because I'm commuting and listening to the radio. So I press the "voice" key on my steering column, tell the car (talking Bluetooth to my cell phone) to call jott.com, and send myself an email reminding myself to shop for that book. It's only medium-high-tech but for now, it does the job well enough.
Micahel
· 1 year ago
It's been a very successful feature at www.Campusfood.com since we added it last year. We connect students to local restaurants in 300+ college towns for online food ordering, and now mobile ordering.
Favorites (or the Usual) are created on the web and given a nickname. Just txt'ing the nickname to shortcode 36368 places the order.
We now have many more touchpoints in interacting with our customers, from traveling to and from class or coming home from the bars. It should be a natural extension of many commerce business models. It's already moving off the computer to the phone and the couch.
Here's a link to a NY Times article on TXT ordering from last summer including Campusfood.com TXT Ordering.
a great idea! its such an easy thing to set up on any online account as well.. Set up with your mobile number, Amazon / Apple send a 5 digit short-code to you, and from then on you can send requests in! A quick response with what you asked for... and its all done!
Looking at the comments, a few people mention jott (only available in USA) and mobile web browsing... I believe mobile phones and simple texting are ubiquitious and much more useful to the majority of people...
Heleen
· 1 year ago
I live in the UK and order my pizza by text from Dominos. They have a record of my phone number, favourite pizza , address and credit card so all I do is text, they send a text back asking to confirm (yes) and then presto pizza arrives within about 20 minutes.
ceonyc
· 1 year ago
I've often wanted to do this with food delivery... text on my way home to have something there shortly after I arrive.
Ashley
· 1 year ago
2D Barcode scanning with a cell phone will soon be deployed in the US to help users to order products adn digital services with their cell phones. Hundreds of digits can be embedded in small codes, that can be scanned and trigger sales to be ordered.
SMS is great for simple data entry, but gets harder with multiple options and complex order processes.
How often have you read a magazine article (in print) on a plane you wanted to send to a friend, or seen a billboard ad for a new TV show you wanted to record on your Tivo...text can work for some other these use cases, but 2D barcodes will be even more useful still....
Stephen
· 1 year ago
Interesting, I am about to alpha launch a mobile search where email (so many mobile devices are email enabled now) is the method of initiating the search and receiving the results. Emails mean you can Cc people, larger content of message, receive attachements, etc... An element of this new service is to also offer transactional aspects like those discussed in this texting article but instead via email. Using the iPhone on the go is still not easy, simply sending an email and receiving the result is much easier.
Maxine
· 1 year ago
My husband and I haven't had cable in 6 years and we are absolutely loving Netflix downloads. Watched The Office Season 3 this weekend show after show. No commercials, no interruptions and less than 10 seconds to begin viewing. For us, it's about the immediacy and it has also stopped us from spending on movies through Max Delivery. That said, we have to watch it on our Toshiba as we cannot view on my Mac. Grrrrr. . .
Brandon Watson
· 1 year ago
Perhaps a simpler approach would be just to have a Netflix-like queue, where you always have 3 movies waiting for you on your computer. Instead of the DVD showing up, they're just there.
lukemelia
· 1 year ago
Texting to initiate purchases is indeed a cool idea. As a few other commenters have mentioned, though. The 2-hour download is not a real problem with iTunes rentals, though.
My wife and I watched Waitress the other night from iTunes rentals, and in the time it took us to get settled on the couch, we started streaming the movie in HD without any interruption. Great movie, BTW!
RacerRick
· 1 year ago
I have an elaborate blackberry-to-gmail-filter system that works like that.
I email book/restaurant/music suggestions, etc to my gmail account. Then I've setup filters based on the subject headers.
It's great for reminders/saving... but it was a pain to setup.
A text based service that does this would be very cool.
scott partee
· 1 year ago
Here in Vienna, as in the rest of Europe, texting is huge. People are tapping away everywhere, and the utility is quite good. For example, one can text the public transit system and receive a ticket, which is then added to one's mobile bill. Numerous vendors accept texted orders, etc. But you have a *great* idea there -- it really needs to go to the next level.
I think the security is good enough as is and it would be procedural. You'd text your order to amazon as described by Dhrumil. The only required first step would be that you register your mobile number w/ the vendor before and give them permission to bill you for purchase request coming from your number. So you'd text; 1) Rent blade runner final cut 2) The vendor replies with a description of what you asked for and asks for a verification. 3) You reply 4) Vendor replies "download started successfully on your home computer".
THere's no real security problem other than permission. You don't exchange any sensitive information, and the reply mechanism ensures somebody can't text orders to your account.
Neat. I want it.
pwb
· 1 year ago
As some have pointed out, you can start watching the movie in about a minute.
The best test-to-pay use case I've seen so far is paying for parking. There are several municipalities and companies rolling out such service.
PayPal's "Text-to-Buy" is also interesting as a general putrpose payment solution.
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
Me too!
Security is overrated
And convenience is underrated
MIke
· 1 year ago
I'm waiting for a subscription service that streams audio and video on demand and stores my favorites and playlists. Once that is in place I won't need to own or rent anything and I won't need the storage space on my device. Anyone know who's in the lead towards this model?
Greg Cohn
· 1 year ago
i've always wondered why netflix doesn't let you sms to add something to your queue. their correlation between search terms and movie results is certainly good enough to get it right most of the time.
Jim L
· 1 year ago
Pizza Hut just announced this today! Do they read your blog Fred?
http://www.gomobo.com/ does this for fast food/delis as well. presented at last nytech meetup. seems like major drawback is that system has to be preprogrammed. so if you always want to get a turkey club prepared the same way at your local diner (and they use the system) works fine. but if you want sandwich w/out mayo, or extra turkey, or something else altogether, requires more work.
I agree, payments via SMS will soon take off in a big way. I had the epiphany of SMS based payments about a year ago, shortly after I joined a mobile SMS company. I was ecstatic about the vision (I was convinced I finally found my "go get funding" idea), started researching it, and found that PayPal and TextPayMe already had the product I envisioned:
Neither company pushes/markets the product as much as they should, which is a HUGE mistake, but I'm sure both will receive a lot of attention as soon as consumers latch onto the concept. My guess is that the ramp up in demand will happen in about 6-9 months.
As for me, I'm still working on my "go get funding" idea. :-)
Noah Weiss
· 1 year ago
Last year I co-authored a paper studying this very idea. We focused on facilitating participants expanding on the 'snippets' they created on their phones. While a slightly different task, the findings are certainly relevant.
One interesting thing to note is that even when given the opportunity to use text, voice, or mms to create snippets, the vast majority of users preferred using text messages almost all the time.
Don't give a cent to Apple! Just go to your local hollywood or Blockbuster, or even the mail one (forgot the name) but DON'T GIVE MONEY TO apple!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
markslater
· 1 year ago
the problem fred is one that was discussed in another topic - the carriers and their willingness to allow these type of apps to function through the deck. I suppose if you were to text to itunes your order, and the settlement were executed through your itunes account and not the carrier, then this would work - but the carriers would not want this. They still foster delusions of grandeur that they are above being a plumber unfortunately.
on a totally seperate topic - i was travelling in the pennines (between manchester and leeds) yesterday and fired up that new google maps app for the BBerry where my location identified not by GPS (my curve does not have GPS) but by triangulating my location in relation to others - it worked like a DREAM - it was extremely accurate, snappy and got me found when i was lost!
Dean Collins
· 1 year ago
I agree SMS is a convenient method to interact with a web service however dont ask USA based carriers to implement 'on-deck' or premium SMS billing as they dont have a clue.
It's staggering that the USA carriers believe single bill services warrant around 50% of the revenue (yes you read that right 50% of revenue - not profits).
So in your example with Apple and their $3 rental - Cingular expect to be paid $1.50 for on-deck premium SMS billing.
I've consulted to a number of companies both here in the USA and overseas about applications suitable for mobile ordering situations (check out www.collins.net.pr/blog for positings) but yet USA carriers still dont get why iMode third party content sales are booming in comparison.
I agree texting in is a great idea but the movie rental service is horrible false advertising. I downloaded a movie only to find that the second I hit play a warning came up saying "Your movie will expire in 24 hours from now." They give you 30 days to watch the movie but 24 hours once you've started it. I think that's pretty screwed up! Apple have become such con-men. I still think the reason they haven't put the cd-rom drive in macbook air is so that people will buy more music and movies from itunes. I also completely agree with your post on the ipods!
All Comments
I was curious about the wait time for the download and gave the service a test last week. I was watching the movie (good quality) within a minute. No hiccups or interruptions. Being an expat in Tokyo this service is extremely appealing, although Netflix with it's flat fee makes for an interesting choice.
Should they BUY Netflix?
Those of us with jailbroken Iphones already have a Netflix app where you can search, get info on films and reorder the queue.
You are conceptually correct, but it's already too easy to have a full featured app vs. a text mechanism.
SMS is a variation of that theme. With the iPhone, I'd expect Apple to let me use iTunes on that phone to order a dowload on their always on yet silent iTV at home.
It's not about the backbone, it's about the node in the neighborhood. Upgrading those will be very expensive. This is why TW cable is experimenting with metered bandwidth in Texas.
The only thing in technology that has increased slower than last-mile bandwidth is battery life.
It is unfortunate.
As for your "remote control" request, many major services allow "triggering" downloads to different machines (e.g. being on a work machine and starting a download to a home computer). Using a cellphone would be interesting, but Authentication is a bit tricky and you don't want passwords being sent around in the clear. Maybe using DTMF via just phone lines would be a slightly better option.
I totally get the point that people should just be able to access their merchants via iPhone, but believe the point is that the adoption rate isn't nearly squared up with text messaging yet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7727tRTt4Y
The Movie Names and Theatre Names might seem odd, so here's the associated blog post explaining the demo,
http://blog.bookeazy.com/2007/12/04/now-get-sch...
Flyers can also purchase airline tickets (!!) over SMS. I am not entirely sure if this has taken off since it feels incredibly complex, with users required to remember multiple steps.
http://www.yatra.com/YT/specialOffers/sms.html?...
- Santosh
Amazon has offered purchases via mobile phone for several years now. Please see:
Shopping On Amazon With Your Wireless Phone
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display....
As someone has mentioned in an earlier comment, SMS->vendor would require some sort of multi-part authentication between the phone user / wireless carrier and the vendor. In the US I think this would be a bit tricky for a third-party (ie start-up company) to negotiate such a service across multiple carriers.
The amazon wireless apps work really well. I haven't tested all the features recently, I'm interested to see if I can add items to my wish list.
Text " buy: Flight of the Concords DVD"
Reply: "Are you sure you want to buy Flight of the Concords DVD?"
Text: "Yes"
A platform that allows brick and mortor retailers to offer a service like this could change the retail buying process significantly. (Twitter would be perfect) something I recently touched on in a conversation with Jack.
JetBlue is on the right track. But they don't have the text-to-buy and flights aren't exactly something you buy on impulse unless your a real road warrior.
Texting is email for my kids
If I want to get a message to them, that's how I do it
Once I get in that habit, the next is my wife, then friends, then twitter,
etc
Ecommerce is a natural next step
fred
I also get my best book ideas when I'm out and about, usually because I'm commuting and listening to the radio. So I press the "voice" key on my steering column, tell the car (talking Bluetooth to my cell phone) to call jott.com, and send myself an email reminding myself to shop for that book. It's only medium-high-tech but for now, it does the job well enough.
Favorites (or the Usual) are created on the web and given a nickname. Just txt'ing the nickname to shortcode 36368 places the order.
We now have many more touchpoints in interacting with our customers, from traveling to and from class or coming home from the bars. It should be a natural extension of many commerce business models. It's already moving off the computer to the phone and the couch.
Here's a link to a NY Times article on TXT ordering from last summer including Campusfood.com TXT Ordering.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/fashion/05fas...
Thanks!
Fred
Looking at the comments, a few people mention jott (only available in USA) and mobile web browsing... I believe mobile phones and simple texting are ubiquitious and much more useful to the majority of people...
SMS is great for simple data entry, but gets harder with multiple options and complex order processes.
How often have you read a magazine article (in print) on a plane you wanted to send to a friend, or seen a billboard ad for a new TV show you wanted to record on your Tivo...text can work for some other these use cases, but 2D barcodes will be even more useful still....
My wife and I watched Waitress the other night from iTunes rentals, and in the time it took us to get settled on the couch, we started streaming the movie in HD without any interruption. Great movie, BTW!
I email book/restaurant/music suggestions, etc to my gmail account. Then I've setup filters based on the subject headers.
It's great for reminders/saving... but it was a pain to setup.
A text based service that does this would be very cool.
I think the security is good enough as is and it would be procedural. You'd text your order to amazon as described by Dhrumil. The only required first step would be that you register your mobile number w/ the vendor before and give them permission to bill you for purchase request coming from your number. So you'd text;
1) Rent blade runner final cut
2) The vendor replies with a description of what you asked for and asks for a verification.
3) You reply
4) Vendor replies "download started successfully on your home computer".
THere's no real security problem other than permission. You don't exchange any sensitive information, and the reply mechanism ensures somebody can't text orders to your account.
Neat. I want it.
The best test-to-pay use case I've seen so far is paying for parking. There are several municipalities and companies rolling out such service.
PayPal's "Text-to-Buy" is also interesting as a general putrpose payment solution.
Security is overrated
And convenience is underrated
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/01/walmart-giv...
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xp...
https://textpayme.amazon.com/mobile/mobile/welcome (Gotham Gal will love this for Amazon purchases)
Neither company pushes/markets the product as much as they should, which is a HUGE mistake, but I'm sure both will receive a lot of attention as soon as consumers latch onto the concept. My guess is that the ramp up in demand will happen in about 6-9 months.
As for me, I'm still working on my "go get funding" idea. :-)
One interesting thing to note is that even when given the opportunity to use text, voice, or mms to create snippets, the vast majority of users preferred using text messages almost all the time.
See the paper at http://hci.stanford.edu/publications/2007/brand...
http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2008/01/18...
on a totally seperate topic - i was travelling in the pennines (between manchester and leeds) yesterday and fired up that new google maps app for the BBerry where my location identified not by GPS (my curve does not have GPS) but by triangulating my location in relation to others - it worked like a DREAM - it was extremely accurate, snappy and got me found when i was lost!
It's staggering that the USA carriers believe single bill services warrant around 50% of the revenue (yes you read that right 50% of revenue - not profits).
So in your example with Apple and their $3 rental - Cingular expect to be paid $1.50 for on-deck premium SMS billing.
I've consulted to a number of companies both here in the USA and overseas about applications suitable for mobile ordering situations (check out www.collins.net.pr/blog for positings) but yet USA carriers still dont get why iMode third party content sales are booming in comparison.
Cheers,
Dean Collins
www.Cognation.net