Friday, November 17, 2006

Columbus airport

I'm back at my favorite airport again, Columbus, Ohio. Not very big, but modern, clean, and always equipped with the latest technology. I especially like the free wireless access here, of course.

The latest novelty is an e-play kiosk. That is a machine with basically a big hard drive and a DVD writer. The machine is operated via a touch screen, from which you can search or browse for hundreds of movies stored on the hard drive. If you find one you like, you can pay between $10 and $20, depending on how new the film is, and get it burned on a DVD.

The choice wasn't all that great yet, and I didn't find anything I liked. But this is definitely a glimpse of the future. The limitation up to now seems to be the hard drive, which limits the number of DVDs on offer. Now imagine hyper-fast broadband connections, a huge central server with every DVD in existance stored on it, and customers being able to download and burn any DVD they want. Another long tail opportunity.

Well, another 2 hours before my plane goes. And then I have to switch planes to get home to Europe, arriving tomorrow morning. I think before I'll visit another of my favorite features of the Columbus airport: A & W All American Food, a burger shop "with a retro feel", as they say. Good burgers, and draft root beer. Can't get that back home in Europe.

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