p2pnet - rss feed: Wal-Mart disses Firefox, Safari
p2pnet.net news:- In what will surely turn out to be one of the most colossal online PR and marketing blunders of all time, Bill and the Boyz and Wal-Mart seem to have colluded to deliberately exclude Firefox, Apple, Opera and other browser users from Wal-Mart’s movie download deal involving the Big Six Hollywood studios, Walt Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Sony, 20th Century Fox and Universal.
Talk about anti-trust.
Unless it’s one of the most brilliant hacks of all time, of course.
But the chances of that being the case are slim to zero, which only leaves the glaring reality that the two huge companies, one the Net’s largest monopolist and the other, the world’s largest retailer, have between them decided only IE users are good enough for Wal-Mart’s grossly over-priced movie downloads.
When Firefox users headed over to download site, they found a huge coding screw-up which resulted in an unsightly jumble of code. But that’s been fixed. Now they see.
Unsupported browser
We’re sorry.
Our website requires the browser Internet Explorer version 6 or higher. It appears that you are using Firefox, Safari, or another browser that Wal-Mart Video Downloads doesn’t currently support. Click here to get Internet Explorer for free from Microsoft.
Thank You.
Or they did at 4:45 am PST, in any event.
Wal-Mart Stores recently went with Microsoft and Novell as “Microsoft’s preferred Linux partner” to build out the company’s Web operations.
Looks like they did it up in spades.
Under the movie deal, Wal-Mart and the Big Six Hollywood studios are predicting online film lovers will be stupid enough to fall for their corporate movie download ‘deal’ under which they’ll be expected to fork out about $13 and $20 to download a DVD on the day of release, close to eight bucks for an old movie and $2 per episode for TV shows.
As we wondered at the time, why would anyone want to do that? It makes no sense, especially considering punters can already get the same ‘product’ from the local video store, and without the hassle of downloading.
Meanwhile, be sure the wise, grey heads at Wal-Mart and Microsoft will soon see the error of their ways and will come up with a press statement along the lines of:
We wanted to make the new Wal-Mart movie download service immediately available to the largest number of customers possible, so we chose Microsoft Internet Exporer as the primary browser for the launch.
However, we had always intended to include Mozilla, Apple and other browsers and the site will shortly be open to them so their users, too, can enjoy the exciting Wal-Mart movie download experience.
They won’t explain why their web site builders weren’t able to make that possible in the first place.
And as Russell McOrmond notes below:
“We need to remember that the files that Walmart ’sells’ (And I use that term very loosely) will likely be DRM-infected. This will mean that they will only be usable on a Microsoft platform, blocking out Apple or any standards-based platforms like Linux, BSD, Solaris, etc. The future ‘fix’ to this website will likely to the documentation to inform people that it isn’t just the Microsoft Browser that they need, but an entirely Microsoft-DRM controlled multimedia platform -
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition/ict/.”
Definitely stay tuned.
Also See:
movie download deal - Wal-Mart movie download farce, February 6, 2007
went with Microsoft - Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Linux deal, January 24, 2007
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February 12th, 2007 at 8:58 am
We need to remember that the files that Walmart “sells” (And I use that term very loosely) will likely be DRM-infected. This will mean that they will only be usable on a Microsoft platform, blocking out Apple or any standards-based platforms like Linux, BSD, Solaris, etc. The future “fix” to this website will likely to the documentation to inform people that it isn’t just the Microsoft Browser that they need, but an entirely Microsoft-DRM controlled multimedia platform.
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition/ict/
February 12th, 2007 at 9:34 am
most of the people using firefox are informed people. Please don’t think i’m saying anything more here than i am. I am just saying that if a person knows how, and to, use firefox over IE, more than likely, they aren’t stupid enough to pay 20$ for a movie that will be gone when they format their hard disk.
February 12th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Perfect! Micro$oft and Ford, and now Wal-Mart. Birds of the feather. Three losers teamed up together.
February 15th, 2007 at 11:09 am
Firefox not supporting certain websites is old news:
www.FirefoxMyths.com
February 15th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Firefox not supporting certain websites is old news:
www.FirefoxMyths.com
March 10th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
…as of 10 March, so a month gone with no change.