Some days it seems like the forms of multimedia that we're used to are on the way out:  CDs, DVDs, and movie rental.  You can find music, your favorite movies, and just about anything else on the Internet for download 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  In some cases, it's quicker, easier, and cheaper to just buy music online and download it to your favorite music player than it is to drive to the store, search through bins, and fumble around with discs.  Maybe that's why digital music has been a relatively successful form of Internet multimedia.

But according to a report by ABI Research, and reported on by Internet Retailer, online movies aren't likely to join music on the "successful Internet media" charts.

Now before I continue, let me clarify here.  I'm talking about online movies, not the online video that you're likely to find at places like YouTube.  What ABI was looking at were full-length, downloadable versions of the movies you'd find at your local video store.  And according to ABI, only 5% of those surveyed had ever bought or rented a downloadable movie.  Services like Netflix, and stores like Blockbuster Video, continue to be the preferred message of the vast majority of consumers.

Almost half of survey respondents said they were happy with the existing setup:  cable/satellite television, DVDs, movie rentals, etc.  This same group of respondents had a 7 in 10 likelihood to watch online video.  But they just aren't interested in downloading and watching full-length movies.

I'm not the least bit surprised by these findings.  I've been a Netflix subscriber and I've tried downloadable movies.  The two don't compare.  For one, I've never found a downloadable movie source with real new releases.  And it's hard to find movies you might like at those places.  Netflix has an awesome rating/customer feedback system.  I've been quite pleased with the suggestions Netflix has made based on my ratings of other movies.  But I have yet to see any such system in place for downloadable movies.  Finally, who wants to watch movies on their computer?  You can take digital music with you and listen to it wherever you want.  Digital movies are pretty much stuck on your computer or the tiny screens of iPods and Zunes and other digital movie players.

That being said, I think Apple has the potential to really break out and succeed with digital movies.  The new Apple TV system introduced a scant few days ago, Apple is bringing to the table a solution to one of the big obstacles to the success of downloadable movies.  With Apple TV, users can buy TV shows and movies through iTunes and then "beam" them to the new system and watch them on their regular television.  That's a huge step forward.  No one wants to watch their movies on a computer monitor.  They want to watch them on their $5000 widescreen HD home theatre system.  And with Apple TV, you can do that.

And since we're on the subject, I just want to quickly address something I've seen on television a lot recently.  Blockbuster has been running ads like crazy advertising it's Netflix competition product, Blockbuster Total Access.  Their big pitch is that you can return and rent movies through the mail, like Netflix, or in the store.  I don't really think Netflix has anything to worry about from this service.  Part of the reason a lot of people use Netflix is because they don't like messing with stores and people and the whole in-store shopping experience.  Netflix caters to a different crowd of people than Blockbuster.