Are Technology Companies Putting Themselves Out Of Business?
Not too long ago, you had a device for virtually every different aspect of your daily life. Your house had a telephone, a television set, a clock, and a radio. As time went on these devices became more mobile. Radios were built into automobiles, as eventually were all of those other devices mentioned above. Then came along cellular phones, which will at some point make landline phones completely obsolete. As of now, both structures co-exist, though cell phone service has greatly reduced the demand for landline service.
Then came the MP3 player, which took off and took a huge cut of the compact disc sales. In part because MP3 individual song sales brought back the idea of the music single, as in the days of records. Why spend fifteen bucks on a CD, when you only like one or two of the songs on it. You can spend two dollars and download each of those songs.
Cameras also went digital, and your photos became easily transferable among digital mediums. Then there was the rise of GPS systems, to help people find out where they are and where they are going.
Now all of our devices are becoming everything devices. Our MP3 Players are also Radios, our Phones are now also MP3 players, Cameras, and GPS units. At some point we will all just have one device to do everything. Now, won’t destroying the standalone device market eventually ruin companies?
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Are Tangible Music CDs and Movie Formats Dying Out?
You always see news reports on how nobody is buying music CDs and that sales are way down. Which is of course due to the rise of MP3 players and online music sales. Now everyone can pick and choose which songs they want to buy. And this is what everyone has been waiting for. Why spend fifteen bucks on a CD when you only like a couple of the songs, when you can just buy those two songs for a buck each. It is just better business for the consumer. Though you don’t get the actual CD, but CDs scratch, wear out, and can get stolen.
Another business hit by the switching to online means is that of home movie sales. Aside from format wars that slap consumers in the face for adopting a new technology early on, the other thing hurting movie sales are online rental services. In the past movie sales were lessened with the introduction of movie rental stores, but now with the rise of online movie rental services the damage is more noticeable. With the rise of services like Netflix, which let you rent movies and watch material online, who needs to buy movies? The movie studios also hurt themselves with multiple releases of the same movies. “Double Dipping” as it is usually called, the studio will have a basic release, then comes out with the better edition a few months down the line. That doesn’t inspire me to want to buy a movie right away, it makes me want to wait for the so-called “Ultimate Edition” or whatever other goofy marketing title they come up with. There is also of course rampant piracy cutting into their sales, but the marketing practices themselves are partially to blame for people hesitancy to buy new movies.
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