Late last week Amazon unveiled it’s digital video download service, including TV shows and full-length movies. Downloading legitimate movies isn’t a new thing, services like Moviebeam and CinemaNow have been at this problem for a while.
The initial word looks pretty bad. An analyst from Jupiter Research and a reviewer from CNET both had troubles viewing what they purchased. The DRM protection being so restrictive that people are locked out of playing their content? That won’t fly at all.
With the release of Amazon Unbox it reminds me how sometimes we can totally forget about the people that will use it, instead designing the product experience around our own tastes and interests rather than talking about the problem and how to solve it.
I’ve seen a couple of big mistakes which anyone looking to launch a web service could learn from:
1. People are still skeptical of purchases made online.
If you sell something you need to be damn sure that they will be able to get it. If you can’t fulfill this promise, you should not sell your product until you can ensure you can, with 1,000% certainty.
We could say that the type of person downloading a video to their computer is also the type of person that would feel more comfortable making online purchases, but if they have a bad experience word gets out to the average person. Negative experience from the early adopter can stop a product before it starts.
2. Copy protection should never interfere with the experience of ownership.
Steve Jobs nailed it when he introduced the iTunes Music Store, “people don’t want to rent their music.” The same concept applies to other content, like video, if we pay for something, we expect the promise of ownership. If ownership is taken that away because of DRM restrictions, what was it we paid for?
While the big content companies want to protect themselves from illegal downloading woes they have yet to realize that the more they restrict people the more they will look to the alternatives. The content companies and DRM makers have to realize that how consumers perceive “ownership” and how they perceive “ownership” is different.
This isn’t Amazon’s fault, but they are spending the trust they have with their buyers and if faulty DRM muddies the buying process, it will be a mark against Amazon in potentially other areas. Always be keen to how outside services that you depend on could impact your relationship with your customer. Your consumer will always blame you.
3. Consumers will find your faults, accept and present them from the beginning.
When you are in the business, you tend to forget that average people tend to have a lot of questions before committing to a more technical purchase like this one. Where do I go if I have problems? Can I use these videos on my iPod? Can I watch it on my TV? How long will it take to download? What are the copy restrictions?
I found answers buried in the FAQs, but Amazon makes a huge mistake by not presenting this information upfront and center. I was encouraged by the ”A friendly start guide”, with pictures and finding only three links with a few lame illustrations for “pictures.”
These limitations or faults of the service should be known before people begin spending time exploring the service. It’s best to be honest as people tend to figure it out anyway.
4. Don’t forget the people!
The new Amazon service appears to be completely missing a human touch. The service appears so systematic and database driven (like most of Amazon’s stores) and doesn’t really ooze any of the warm and fuzzies that one would expect for foray into such a new area like movie downloads. I mean, there has been so much hype about movie downloads to our desktop for years and this is all we get?
Some of the softer niceties of the web like good marketing copy, good information and visual design go a long way to building trust with your consumer. This is especially important if you find yourself close to the bleeding edge.
Also with a big service like this, run a ultra-private beta to work out the kinks while your guinea pigs are under an NDA. Using Jupiter Research or CNET as a product guinea pig you should avoid at all costs.
5. Solve a Problem
Finally, While I can tell you about a couple of problems with how Amazon presents the service, I can’t tell you what problem they are solving. With Apple, adding video to iTunes was tied to the ability to watch it on a video iPod. But at Amazon where you can buy the DVD and get it in two days, does it make sense to download a restricted digital copy rather than wait for UPS?
It is expected that Apple will debut a similar service tomorrow it will be interesting how Apple presents their service differently. I expect that Steve Jobs will present the concept of downloading movies as something we didn’t know we could live without until now, in other words they will focus on communicating the problem and how they intend to solve it.
Arstechnia also has a good write up on why Amazon Unbox is better “left off your box.”
<a href=”http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060910-7704.html” rel=”nofollow”><a href=”http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060910-7704.html” rel=”nofollow”>http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060910-7704.html</a></a>
It is almost painful how right you are, Brian. I especially liked this quote:
“Negative experience from the early adopter can stop a product before it starts.”
It really makes you wonder what the motivation is behind this. I mean, Amazon prides themselves on being customer-driven. I’d like to know exactly which customers were asking for fairly expensive, DRM restricted, poorly delivered movies?
Perhaps the motivation was far less customer-driven and much more “we better get this out before Apple”-driven ;)
I wish I had read your review before trying to purchase a video. I have been trying to get my video to play for a week, but DRM issues are somehow locking me out from viewing it. I have asked for a refund, to no avail- the Amazon folks keep sending my unhelpful suggestions like asking me to turn off my firewall.
I have a PhD in engineering from an Ivy League school, manufacture bleeding edge microchips at Intel, and am a tech geek. I can’t make this work. ‘nuf said.