Anything in the world of media that could be touched will turn to stone or so says Steve Rubel. And he has even put a timeframe for his prediction – January 2014. So by the new year eve of 2014 printed magazines, news papers and books will seize to exist instead we would consume them over the Kindle’s or iPhones, boxed software, video games and movies on DVD’s would become a relic of the past and we would download softwares and games over the internet and stream our movies via Hulu or the likes.
Rubel has even provided references from the events of last month to support his claim:
Don’t believe me? Consider the following news items, all of which broke in the last month …
- Microsoft (an Edelman client) yesterday opened up a store to sell all of its software online for immediate download (November 13)
- Apple is selling record numbers of downloadable games for the iPhone and iPod Touch. This is attracting publishers because the lack of physical media is better economically for both consumers and video game creators (November 12)
- Oprah sparked a deluge of traffic when she endorsed the Amazon Kindle as the next big thing (November 3)
- Lots of alternatives are emerging for ebooks including the iPhone (November 3)
- Microsoft is set to open up the XBox 360 to user-generated games on November 19, all of which will only be available via download – there will be no DVDs (October 30)
- Netlfix is making its catalogue available over the Internet and on set-top boxes like the XBox 360 and soon TiVo(October 30)
- The Christian Science Monitor said it is folding its daily print edition in favor of moving it online (October 28)
