Blockbuster and Motorola Make Movies Mobile


Blockbuster is taking full swings at rival Netflix with its latest digital deal – a partnership with Motorola to bring movies to your mobile phone. But the move may be too little too late, if rumors prove true that Netflix is readying to send movies to Apple’s iPhone.

Earlier this week, Blockbuster announced that it teamed up with Samsung to deliver movies to your front door. Today’s Motorola deal showcases the importance of mobile in any strategy to give consumers anytime access to content.

“Mobile video entertainment is exploding, as consumers are demanding the widest selection of content,” Christy Wyatt, Blockbuster’s vice president of software platforms, applications and ecosystem, told the Dallas Business Journal.

Blockbuster will feature its BlockBuster OnDemand movie download service on select Motorola phones. Those phones, the company says, will offer an exclusive Blockbuster OnDemand application, providing “on-the-go download access” to a digital library of thousands of current Blockbuster OnDemand movies.

For Motorola, the deal is a sign of the company “trying desperately to regain some market share,” writes Don Reisinger of cNET. He adds that even though Motorola’s appeal might grow due to its deal to deliver Google’s Android phones, the competition with Apple’s slick and iTunes-ready iPhone is an “uphill battle.”