Samsung has surprised the world by launching a film store for mobile phones, trying to get ahead in all the ‘Stores Wars’ that are going on right now, some for applications, others for music ‘ so Samsung thought it would be first with films. The service will launch first in the UK, then Germany and then operate throughout Europe by the end of the year, the company says.
There is no doubt that this is as much a sign of the times ‘ many touch screen phones have far bigger and better quality screens than ever before including the Samsung Tocca Ultra ‘ but also Samsung has miles and miles to catch up with both Nokia and Sony Ericsson in the portal space, especially outside of Korea.
Samsung threatened to enter this space about four years ago directly against Apple iTunes. The trigger for this was Apple reneging on a rumoured agreement to buy $3.2 billion of Flash memory solely from Samsung.
Instead Apple handed out over $2.5 billion in contracts to a wide variety of Flash chip suppliers, rather than just working with Samsung. In the end talk of Samsung competing directly with Apple was held at bay by Apple continuing to be a big enough customer for Samsung Flash memory so that it didn’t want to upset Apple.
But times are changing and perhaps the strength of Samsung in the US where it is now the biggest phone supplier, ahead of Motorola, has meant that the Hollywood Studios are happier to let a Korean company source their films.
Over 500 movies and TV shows are already available to download, supplied by Warner Brothers, Paramount, Universal and Momentum Pictures, either as a rental or to keep – a further 1,000 films will be added by the end of June taking the total to 1,500. Looking at the films they are all modern films which have only just gone to DVD release. Prices start from £2.49 ($3.62) for a 24-hour rental to £4.99 ($7.26) to own most films, but some top of the line titles like The Dark Knight will be almost three times those prices.
The service will roll out first in the UK – where Samsung has piloted most of its store efforts – and Germany, and will extend to most major European markets by the end of the year. It will run on any Samsung handsets which include the company’s ‘Active Matrix Organic LED’ touchscreen technology. Samsung is also the world’s biggest maker of OLED screens, which use 40% less power than LCDs, but also have far better colour and brightness contrasts, although right now they are still very expensive to make.
More devices with this feature will be rolled out during the year and Samsung also plans to offer the movie service on notebooks, netbooks, Samsung TVs and MP3/MP4 players. By confining usage to its own devices, it is adopting a similar model to that of Apple. Its platform is powered by Acetrax, a digital movie retailer that has holding agreements with major and independent movie and music studios.
Nokia announced at the Mobile World Congress that it would merge all of its store efforts onto the Ovi Store, from which consumers will be able to buy games, music, applications, widgets and video. It will also merge its Social networking site MOSH into Ovi.