According to Dr. Thornburgh (Laureate, 2009), Red Queens are “Huge competition between two technologies; in the process, all other competitors are left behind.” With this statement in mind, I believe that the current competition between DVD’s and Video-on-Demand (VOD) are examples of Red Queens. “The name “Red Queen” is attached to certain phenomena when a competition between two forces results in the rapid development of them both” (Thornburg, 2008c). Although consumers enjoy watching movies in the comfort of their homes, DVD’s release more new titles than VOD (Peers, 2001). But on the other hand, there are no late fees with VOD and you don’t have to go anywhere to find them. An article by Martin Peers (2001) states that…
Many consumers say they want to be able to
choose from movies that haven't shown up
in their video stores. Yet the video-on-demand services
will mostly offer only a few hundred movies for the foreseeable future, and in some cases other features like reruns of TV shows.
I believe that both DVD’s and VOD are in the reverses stage of McLuhan’s tetrad due to the instant video streaming of Netflix, Vudu, and others. These sites provide new/ old releases and TV series. Although Red Box offer new releases at an outstanding rental fee of one dollar, Netflix and Vudu allows you to add movies to a list for future viewing and no late fees.
References:
Laureate Education, Inc. (2009). Emerging and future
technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Peers, M. (2001). Video on demand arrives -- sort of ---
long-delayed home service delivers movies instantly, but film choices are thin.
Wall Street Journal, pp. 0-B.1. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/398917676?accountid=14872
Thornburg, D. (2008c). Red
Queens, butterflies, and strange attractors: Imperfect lenses into emergent
technologies. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.
