Vudu is in town (NYC) and Gizmodo was given a briefing. Back in April I heard the Vudu video-on-demand box would land at a price point competitive with AppleTV ($300-$350). However, Giz now reports the device will be launched later this year “somewhere under $500.”
Vudu will have a few things going for it such as a large library of thousands of flicks, instant playback of content, and a rich yet simple interface. But that $400 – $500 price point (plus the cost to rent or buy movies) will be hard to overcome in a marketplace where everyone’s cable or satellite provider offers video on demand – plus multifunction devices like the Xbox 360, AppleTV, and TiVo also provide movie downloads. Additionally, HD purists (who have the motivation and disposable income needed for this device) will balk at the upscaled 480p content (without even seeing it). And the fact is, the economical Netflix snail-mail DVD rental solution is still working well for most. I may spontaneously order a flick on Xbox or TiVo, but the bulk of my movies (and TV shows) are delivered via Netflix.