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Movielink and Amazon just let you download you rental video over the internet. Easy. Convenient.
Wal-Mart has come up with the wacky idea that if you want to rent a move, you have to buy the DVD, and then you get to download the movie. Wal-Mart has the advantage of selling 40% of the new DVDs in the US, but it would appear that its percentage of the download rental market will be much smaller, particularly with a program that makes customers buy the video twice.
Wal-Mart is coming to market with a very strange model just as large companies like Apple and Blockbuster plan to compete for the same business.
As the field gets crowded, it would seem to make sense that "ease of use" would stand next to price as the critical features for getting customers.
But, not at Wal-Mart.
Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.