Anybody watch the financial reports? If Apples download plans are so hot why did their stock drop after their show? Because of the lack of new product and enthusiasm for what they did show.

I don't see downloading of one form or the other taking over, at least in the near future. My habits are such I don't see it in my future at all. I have a fairly up to date computer and DSL, I still get the occasional sound drop out on streaming audio or listening to music samples. If this happens with just audio I can imagine what a piece of crap a movie would be. Cable has a long long way to go before they would even make a dent in the market. Not everyone has cable or if they do, not very many people have the dream service Pix seems to have.

With all that being said, you'd have to be blind not to see that certain factions of the industry sure want alternative ways of delivering entertainment to the consumer. Panasonic and a few others are going to start offering TV's with circuitry built in to them to interact with cable. If that isn't a stepping stone I don't know what is. This still don't mean a take over, it just means some one wants a piece of the pie. Comcast has announced some major plans to offer more movies, a projected database of 6,000 titles and they will use 4 analog stations to deliver a movie download. First big draw back is this plan is limited to COMCAST.

Most of you live in larger cities and fail to realize that a good size segment of consumers can't get cable or broadband if they wanted it. You see all this cutting edge stuff and get all excited but not every one gets to play. St. Louis isn't a small town and our cable system isn't much better today than it probably was 20 years ago. Like I posted some where, they, being Charter, just went "digital" last summer. If it wasn't for satelite becoming a viable option for rural areas they'd be out the picture all together.

Anyway just some thoughts to stir in.