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December 28, 2007

rivals

Wal-Mart’s digital download store: no, no prices everyday

Posted Dec. 28, ’07, 7:13 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Apple » Rivals

Wal-MartGood bye, Wal-Mart, and good riddance. The retail giant shut down its video download store this past week with a whimper, not a bang. Honestly, we can’t blame you if you didn’t hear about it when it happened on the 21st: who was really buying video from them anyway?

Wal-Mart launched its video store back in February of this year, at which point it was doomed to failure due to its lack of compatibility with the iPod and its fun, fun, fun DRM schemes. Not to mention that the price points were not Wal-Mart’s traditionally bargain basement figures, as they didn’t want to risk cannibalizing their extremely lucrative DVD sales.

No refunds will be offered for existing purchases, though those videos will be able to be played back—but only on the computer on which you bought it. That’s right: get a new computer at any point, ever, and you’re out of luck. I’d say that I’m pretty glad that I didn’t invest any money in Wal-Mart’s store, except that it wasn’t compatible with Macs anyway. No tears shed here.

[via Daring Fireball]


1 Comments

WhiteDog Author Profile Page said:

Let's hope Apple's just announced foray into movie downloads with the iTunes Store does better. At least there will be less competition now that Wal Mart has washed out. No doubt Apple's DRM will be easier to live with. Time will tell. There are questions about image quality that remain to be answered. A DVD plays at decent resolution on a computer. And NetFlix's Watch Instantly service works well with good bandwidth - and it tests your bandwidth to determine what resolution to use - any limitations are practical and not arbitrary. Still, movie rental downloads is a new paradigm just waiting for Apple's magic touch.

December 28, 2007 10:22 PM

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