Flipkart has the makings of a champion. In the past year or so, it has risen to the e-shopping zenith and comfortably perched there. Praised for its customer service, prompt delivery and amazing deals, customers feel they have little to lose when they use it, and this gives it a reason to expand and most importantly, pioneer. It is in this spirit, that they’ve announced the launch of an extension to its service.
Entering the field of digital distribution in India, dubbed
“Flyte Digital Store”, Flipkart aims at introducing digital media downloads like music, e-books, and perhaps video games — a concept common in the US and Europe and spearheaded by iTunes, Steam and Amazon. In response to CrazyEngineers’ enquiry, Flipkart replied, “Please be informed that the Flyte Digital Store is a feature newly added to our website and is not open to public as of now. It will take another three-four weeks for this to be accessible to our customers."
Reports peg the expected price of song downloads to be `10, with the ability to re-download the mp3 up to four times. This is really low compared with iTunes’ $0.99 per song price.
But the question remains as to the feasibility of the adoption of such a system. With rampant piracy in the country, where many people don’t even know that downloading songs and other copyrighted media from the Internet is illegal, it remains to be seen whether Flipkart can inculcate a sense of righteousness in the common man. We are all for digital distribution. It saves money, is generally more convenient and expedient, and allows for cloud integration. In fact, we recommend it. Once Flyte opens, go and try to be more responsible, and download all the Rahman you want to.