I few weeks back, the store replaced my twice-broken (by no fault of my own) iPod Photo with a sexy, new Video iPod.
Although I’m not complaining, it didn’t arrive until after I took a long, cross-country trip, and that made for some looooong flights.
The longer leg, however, had one of those crappy in-flight entertainment compilations that featured some fluffy reporting pieces, snippets of television shows, and lots and lots of commercials. In my non-scientific poll of the other passengers, it seemed as though about one person was actually, actively watching.
Airlines continue to search for the right balance of payment method and content for in-flight entertainment. Is it free content with ads? Pay for play? Nothing at all, and you’ll like it? Virgin America recently launched its “Red” entertainment service, which puts a Linux-powered computer in every seat back, and gives people access to movies (at 6 to 8 bucks a pop), archived TV shows ($2), video games (including the original Doom), live Dish Network TV feeds, food menus, and even chat rooms. Future features include eBooks and shopping. Surprisingly the films are unedited, which might lead to all sorts of interesting situations if Junior in the seat behind you starts peeking as you watch Die Hard II or 300?
Here’s an interesting wrinkle: Items are paid for with credit cards that are stored in the plane’s memory and processed after landing, which sounds reasonable, but who knows how secure the system really is? Okay, so maybe I’m being too paranoid, but I’m still not sure I really have any interest in this, or any other in-flight entertainment system (particularly now that I have my Video iPod). Although, honestly, I can’t say that I ever really did. Sure, there’s some novelty at first, but once that’s worn off, all I ever needed was a book and some sort of music player, and the music player was pretty much optional.
Obviously, though, some people think otherwise. Will people really pay $8 to watch a movie on a tiny screen when you can buy a DVD for about twice that and watch it as much as you want? Or does being a captive on a giant, flying cigar make people buy things that they otherwise wouldn’t? Clearly Virgin owner Richard Branson is banking on it.
