Red Queens and Increasing Returns

When trying to decide which movie to select for the module 4 science fiction discussion question which was based on one of Philip Dick books, I called a friend of mine that has a Netflix account. I asked her to go through her program to see if she could find any of the movies that I called out to her over the telephone. Meanwhile, I visited our local video store “Video Warehouse” and had the salesperson to look up each of the movies on their computer. According to her computer, she did have the movie “Paycheck” in store on the shelf but unfortunately she was unable to locate the movie. My friend called back and said she had found the movie “Blade Runner” through Netflix which she would have to show on television because she had cancelled her DVD rental account with Netflix. In other words I ended up viewing the movie from Netflix on my friend’s television.

According to Dr. Thornburg, increasing returns is when “two technologies hit at around the same time with one getting locked in and drives the other technology into extinction (Laureate Education Inc., 2009).” I would say that the competition between the DVD and Video on demand is an example of increasing returns because they both hit the market around the early 1990s. Part of the definition of increasing returns states that one technology gets locked in (Video on demand) and the locked in technology drives the other technology (DVD) into extinction.  This is exactly what is happening to DVD rental stores. At one time in my hometown which is small, we had about 4 video DVD and VHS rental store but we now have one DVD rental store and a lot of red boxes around town.

There is competition between DVD rental stores and video on demand because for one thing when renting DVDs one is faced with the problem of going to the store to pick them up, having to get them back by a certain day, if they are late having to pay a late fee, and going to the store to take them back. Video on demand is provided by the cable company according to their cable packages. There is an extra fee when ordering video on demand movies if none of the following packages are ordered such as starz, encore, showtime and HBO but you don’t have to leave home to acquire them or take them back.  

On McLuhan’s tetrad (enhances, obsoletes, reverses, and retrieves), DVD is becoming obsolete (fading out) so it would be on the tetrad as obsolete. Video-on-demand is what is making the DVD become obsolete. VOD would be on the tetrad under enhances because of its availability. A DVD has to be loaded and unloaded into and out of a DVD player whereas, VOD are already loaded onto the television. DVD and VOD both rekindle a form of storytelling because they tell a story that interest people.

Reference

Laureate Education Inc. (2009). Increasing returns. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Marion Bush