Samsung Mobile today launched Samsung Movies. The mobile movie store is powered by Acetrax, and will allow Samsung customers to download and watch movies and TV shows. Initially only available in the UK and Germany, the service will roll out in other European countries during 2009.
Movie Store has launched with 500 movies, from Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal and Momentum Pictures. There are plans to add another 1,500 by the middle of the year. Currently the service is available on Samsung phones and compatible laptops or PCs. The service will be expanded to other devices, including notebooks, music players and Samsung TVs.
Pricing ranges from £2.49 to £3.99 for 24 hour rental, or from £6.99 to £16.99 to buy the movie outright.
From the release:
“Movies direct from the Hollywood Studios showcase our new Samsung touch screen phones such as the Samsung Tocco Ultra Edition with its industry leading high quality TFT-LCD screen and revolutionary ‘virtual’ 5.1 channel surround sound system”, said Nick Turner-Samuels, Head of Content at Samsung Mobile UK. “We’re very excited to be able to provide existing and future customers access to their favourite movies and TV shows across a number of different Samsung platforms. On top of this, it’s all in superior picture and sound quality to the standard currently available in the market.”
“Samsung’s video enabled phones powered by the new movie service open up a whole new experience for consumers. We are delighted to be Samsung’s partner in this major step that gives customers instant access to the latest Hollywood titles as well as lots of other content,” said Rolf Uwe Placzek, CEO, Acetrax.
What we think?
I’m really not all that enthused about this service. First off, the pricing is a bit all over the place. For a guaranteed good quality download, 7 quid is pretty good, but that’s literally as cheap as it gets. The 17 pound end of the spectrum would make anyone wince, which is a problem. It’s a big barrier in the way of a service which already has some serious barriers to contend with. The majority of consumers are more likely to just walk into their local HMV and buy a DVD for that price. On top of which, there’s no mention made of Samsung supporting data download, so the final price of the movie is likely to be bigger than just the Movie Store price. If you add that to the other barriers – lack of consumer education being the biggest one – you end up with a service that people are pretty unlikely to use.
I do like that any purchase from the Samsung Movie Store gives you two versions of the movie – one that’s optimised for computer watching, and one that’s optimised for mobile device watching. But that’s about all I like.
Hi Cian,
This question may be a little off-topic, Nokia and Samsung are the leading mobile giants well-known for offering high-end technology driven mobile phones. Their latest offerings, the Nokia N958GB and Samsung G800 are exquisite camera phones with cutting-end-features.
Thx.