Red Queens and Increasing Returns

When you decided to obtain a DVD for your science fiction assignment in Module 4, where did you go to find a movie based on a Philip K. Dick book? Did you rent or purchase a DVD, or did you view it digitally on your computer using Netflix or a similar vendor of video on demand?
• In this week’s blog posting we are discussing the DVDs and an example of Red Queens or Increasing Returns. Red Queens, according to Thornburg (2008), are two technologies that are dominating the marketplace in a confronting each other fashion. The struggle to continue ahead of the other benefits the consumer as the competitors constantly improves the product to stay in the game. (The term Red Queen was derived from the notion of Alice in Wonderland with the Red Queen in hand, running simply to stay in place.) I had the movie in my personal library of videos. I seen the movie in the theater and when it was released on DVD I had to purchase it because it really intrigued me because of the scientific innovation of technology that could help us in the further. I am a science fiction buff and really like those types of movies.
Is the current competition between DVDs and video on demand an example of increasing returns or Red Queens? Justify your response with sound reasoning and specific examples.
• Yes I think DVD have a better return than on demand. The on demand I research for this project was satellite broadcast DIRECTV. The satellite provider has targeted the DVD market and the home delivery services that are provided by Blockbuster and Netflick.
Where do you think DVDs and video on demand are on the four criteria of McLuhan’s tetrad?
• McLuhan’s Tetrad
I do believe that currently, DVDs will replace and suppress the satellite movie, yet both have similarities in McLuhan’s Tetrad. Below I have put the DVD into a Social Tetrad and the satellite into a technology tetrad.
SOCIAL TETRAD



References

Arthur, W. B. (1996). Increasing returns and the new world of business. Harvard Business Review, 74(4), 100−109.

Thornburg, D. (2008). Red Queens, butterflies, and strange attractors: Imperfect lenses into emergent technologies. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.