Will Using a Flash Memory Card to Rent a Movie Catch On?

March 6, 2008

An Irish company called PortoMedia claims it will soon introduce a new way to rent movies where the customer copy of the movie is stored on a small device known as a flash memory card. At a convenience store or an airport, you will go up to a kiosk, select a title and download a movie to your card in roughly a minute. You can later watch the movie on a TV set or a computer screen. To watch on a TV, you plug the card into a special dock that is supposedly going to cost about $60. To watch on a computer, you apparently just plug the card into one of its USB ports. Advantages of this system for the customer include nothing to return and no late fees.