Blockbuster to rent movies to view on WM phones

Blockbuster, who recently announced an internet based video on demand streaming service, is teaming up with Microsoft to allow smartphone owners to view their movies on their devices.

Blockbuster will build some of these services on top of Live Mesh.

“Eventually, we’ll give customers instant access to any movie on any device with an Internet connection and a screen,” said Keith Morrow, Blockbuster’s chief information officer.

“More immediately, we could use this technology to reach into airports. Travelers could quickly download movies from Blockbuster kiosks to their portable media players.”

Blockbuster is one of the first companies to try building an application on Live Mesh, and it certainly has some cool ideas. For example, Mr. Morrow said, once people begin connecting their televisions to the Internet, software such as Live Mesh will allow them to pause a movie on one TV and pick it up – at exactly the same place – on a TV in another building.

“We’ve built in the functionality that allows Microsoft programs to talk to each other, but we’re also opening up Live Mesh to anyone else who has cool ideas for sharing data,” said Jeff Hansen, general manager of Microsoft’s Live Services group.

“There are so many things we can do to add value,” Mr. Morrow said. “That’s why we’re working with Microsoft and other partners that can help us deliver.”

Live Mesh is showing itself to be a very interesting platform, but one us Windows Mobile users will need to keep a close eye on.

Source: DallasNews