I still ended up at the kiosk and picked a couple movies out but this experience led me to making a decision today that I’d get my site mobile ready. Yeah, it works already but it could be much more optimized. And with the launch of the upcoming iPad I’ll probably try to put together another site that is optimized for that device as well. So here we are at the end of another workday (isn’t it Saturday) but I have completed getting a mobile theme up on the site. Thanks to the great folks at Brave New Code I have installed, configured, and customized the WPTouch plugin for this site which converts the theme when you use a mobile device.

So those folks out there that are hitting me from their iPhone, Android, Blackberry 9500, blackberry 9530, cupcake, dream, incognito, ipod, mini, webOS, or webmate browsers, you now will automatically get a new mobile optimized site! There is a switch at the bottom if you want to turn that off and go back to the fullscreen site.

So enjoy (I already have been) and please let me know if you find any issues and I’ll see what I can do to fix them up for you.

This comes from a statement made by NCR CEO Bill Nuti who told Bloomberg News the kiosk manufacturer was willing to spend millions to acquire third-party digital and by-mail rental properties.

It is well understood that Blockbuster needs to expand out its distribution network in various ways besides their stores such as Kiosks, DVD-By-Mail, and Digital Distribution in order to remain viable. But current financial state precludes their ability properly fund those ventures. As such, they have joined forces with folks like NCR who currently licenses the Blockbuster name for use on its Blockbuster Express DVD Kiosks because of the value of the Blockbuster Brand.

As Blockbuster reported its non-Blockbuster earnings report yesterday, it might open the door for NCR to acquire a business unit, distribution channel, or interest into Blockbuster itself. Gil Lauria, analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles says, “NCR at some point may decide to buy any piece of Blockbuster, depending on what happens to the company financially.”

It is understandable that NCR may be worried that if Blockbuster goes down, the value of that name also goes with it. As such, they are looking at ways that they might be able to both gain another distribution channel as well as bolster that reputation. Those goals might require them to purchase more assets from Blockbuster. As Lauria put it, “NCR is worried about its own business, and they are ready for any [third-party] scenario Blockbuster might entertain. If Blockbuster was to get in [further] trouble, NCR would be able to take some of those pieces.”

Use one of our promo codes and check out the kiosk!

Bashas’ which operates 153 stores under several different names; Bashas’, Food City, AJ’s Fine Foods, and Dine Markets across Arizona serves many different “demographic neighborhoods” with its different concepts. The Blockbuster Express kiosks will fit in perfectly with these concepts that are well targeted.

Look for one at your local store and grab one of our Promo Codes to try out the kiosk!

With this push to get players into the households, will we see an upswing in Blu-Ray discs? I’m not sure it’ll really jump because of that. I’m finding that in my own household, what is holding me back is the rental kiosks not stocking Blu-Ray.

You see, I don’t feel the need to own too many movies these days, and with Netflix streaming and all of the free Video on Demand I’m pretty much a movie renter these days. Its cheaper to rent the movie the 4-5 times I’ll watch it over my lifetime than to own it. But that’s only feasible when its fast and easy to rent it at only $1 per day.

With all of the rental kiosks near my house (I have 10 within a mile – one of those is Blockbuster Express), I can make a quick trip down the street and pick up most any movie I want to watch. If the movie is one of those that my younger kids might watch over and over, well they don’t really care whether its in Blu-Ray or VHS! So those movies tend to be in DVD format because they are cheap and can be backed up.

So I really don’t have a need for a Blu-Ray player even at $78 because I cannot get the movies from the DVD rental kiosks yet. I realize its a chicken and egg situation. Once the kiosks start making Blu-Ray’s available, I’ll probably get a player. Or I might finally succumb to the Netflix streaming and purchase one just for that and get the Blu-Ray as a bonus.

Meanwhile, I guess I’ll put my HD-DVD player I ran out and purchased early up on eBay .

You can use these codes once per credit card. After that it won’t let you continue to use it. But if you are like me and have a pocket full then you can pick up a few different movies with each code.

Those the codes have dates with them, experience has shown that they do not always stop at the date specified. So let me know if the codes work for you!

Free Rental with code G29TA1 – Valid until 12/17/2009
Free Rental with code GT11A – Valid until 1/31/2010
Free Rental with code KIOSK – Valid until 2/10/2010
Rent 1 Get 1 for free with code GW9TB2 – Expires 12/15/2009

DVDPlay was the first to market with a DVD rental kiosk back in 1999. Their kiosks were initially used by McDonalds to roll out Redbox. Shortly thereafter, Redbox created their own design and began to have those manufactured by another provider. In October of 2008, DVDPlay received a patent for their kiosk design and promptly sued Redbox for patent infringement claiming that Redbox had infringed on that patent. Redbox immediately countersued saying that DVDPlay was infringing on one of their patents. Both cases were dropped in late February 2009.

DVDPlay currently has 1,300 kiosks deployed across California, Colorado, Illinois, and Texas. Though Blockbuster Express expected to have significantly more kiosks by the end of 2009, this does leave them at 3,800 kiosks owned and operated under the two brand identities.

See the full press release from NCR.

He sat down with Danny King over at Video Business for an interview. You can find the full text at Video Business Online.

In the interview he tries to distinguish how Blockbuster Express is and will be different from Redbox. By having double the capacity and by working on a future with digital downloads they hope to differentiate themselves.

He also states his understanding that consumers expect them to provide new release movies on the release date but that they must work hand-in-hand with the studios to make that happen. He believes that the DVD Kiosk marketplace has not stolen from the home entertainment pie but has, in fact, grown it.

Check out the full interview at Video Business.

Keyes blames the closings more on cash flow than on increasing sales. With huge payments due quickly and looming overhead, they need to build cash flow more than they need sales.

Read the full article at Bloomberg.com.

Maybe it is a difference from a price point. I know that my movie rentals from my Cable provider are at $2.99 compared to the $1 price point that Blockbuster Express has. And AppleTV rentals are $3.99 for new releases in SD and $4.99 in HD. At that price point even I will stop by a kiosk in a nearby store that I’m likely already headed to rather than digital download the movie.

Or is it a different demographic? Are the kiosks seeing a completely different customer base than Netflix? With a Netflix subscription you do get digital streaming of over 12,000 titles currently. But are these the same customers? I can tell you that I had a hard time finding physical comedy movies like Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Madea Goes to Jail in the kiosks. They are highly rented movies. But on Netflix, they don’t even appear in the top 100.

That might indicate that there is a completely different demographic between the Netflix subscriber and the typical Kiosk user. The Netflix subscriber who can pay something like $20/month for a subscription plus $50/mo for high-speed Internet and have a device to play it back on is apparently not the same as the typical kiosk customer. Even though we hear all the reports of the prevalence of high-speed Internet, there are still many households who aren’t setup with a state-of-the-art Home Theater and High-Speed Internet to watch their movies through digital downloads. Even some of the kiosk players like NCR are investing into companies like MOD Systems who can provide digital downloading at the kiosk itself. But will that demographic that isn’t pulling it across the Internet have the appropriate device to plug that Flash Card or Memory Stick into?

Maybe DVD’s won’t be going away anytime soon. With the quick adoption of Blu-ray there will be even more reason to stick with physical media. There is just too much information to push that across the Internet or to store it on a flash drive. I think that the DVD kiosks will be around a long time to continue pushing out new content through a medium where we can still grab a physical item and bring it home. We’ve been doing that for thousands of years. The caveman used to come home with food as a prize to show his tribe, family, or clan. Now we come home with a new movie or game we just rented on the way home instead . Here’s to progress!