You had great foresight, but did not look far enough ahead. Human beings are so focused on owning "stuff" that they have failed to realize that duplicate storage of digitized information is a waste if the information can just as easily be shared from one central location.
Therefore, the long term answer to your question is that one will pay a flat rate service and be able to listen to or view any medium, anytime, anywhere, on demand. The flat rate will likely be paid to the service provider and distributed to the artists/creators in proportion to their share of the "downloads."
It will likely take 5-15 years before the bandwidth and wireless equipment is fully there to meet these requirements but it will happen eventually. Walk into a Circuit City, Tower Records, or Blockbuster and remember what you see - CD's, videos, DVD's - one day it will all be gone.
In the interim, and even as a necessary part of the download process, flash memory appears to have the best chance to dominate. Prices must continue to fall, and rapidly so, for this to happen.
I like SNDK's chances in this emerging market.
Good luck.
Prophet |
