Clockwork Orange on a Tocco May Not Be Delicious

MocoNews, The Register & Reuters are all reporting today that Samsung and Swiss VOD company Acetrax have launched a mobile and PC movie download service in the UK with content from 3 major studios: Warner Bros., Paramount, and Universal. The service currently only works with the high-end Tocco Ultra Edition, which is Samsung's top selling UK handset...but Samsung obviously plans to expand addressable devices, eventually including their PMPs and connected TVs. Movies are available on an EST basis (~$10 -$24) and for 24hr Rental ($2.50 -$4.00) and must be sideloaded from the PC. The service will roll out across major territories in Europe during 2009, with Germany going live next. As many of you know I am highly skeptical about the ability of any hardware manufacturer, other than Apple, to pull off a service like this. Perhaps the relationship with Acetrax will help in this instance...but fundamentally Samsung needs to very quickly (or extremely patiently) become an adept direct-to-consumer content merchant. Bon chance!...I give this service a 25% chance of surviving more than a year.