Scientific Proof That Internet Users Are Lunatics
BT Sues Prodigy Over Hyperlink Patent

Burn To Order Software Kiosks Appearing In Stores

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the been-there,-done-that dept

Fri, Dec 15th 2000 12:51pm — Mike Masnick
More burn to order software kiosks are appearing in stores these days. There have been a few companies (including the one talked about in the article) that have been pushing these kiosks for a few years without much success. There are reasons why most of these plans have failed in the past. There are only a few software titles these days that people actively go to the store looking to buy in a box. Adding hundreds of useless titles doesn't help. Also, the kiosks aren't that helpful. The problem is that (unlike shelves) only one person can really look through the kiosk at a time, causing a huge bottleneck. When they used to do that with music they found that people would stand at the kiosk for about 20 minutes "browsing" and then never buy anything.
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  1. identicon
    Jimmy The Fat Weasel, 16 Dec 2000 @ 11:47am

    No Subject Given

    I wonder if implementing a several terminals rather than a single one per store would help to minimize queues and the wait and bother associated with them. Then, one must ask, would it be useful for software retailers to occupy space with terminals as opposed to hard copies of software?

    I think this would be a worthy implementation for utility software but I believe that the drawback comes from taking away the boxes of today's games with their shiny and attractive images. When browsing in the games section, turning the box around (or opening the little flap thing) followed by a slight sense of awe is a possible incentive to buy that a terminal display might lack.

    maybe it's just me...

    [ link to this | view in thread ]


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