That quote from the Apollo 13 flight came to mind as I was waiting for the MRT recently. I was quite frustrated by how difficult it was to locate and access the music, games, e-books, and more I wanted to download on my smartphone. Rather than suffer in silence I decided to investigate into what could make this situation better. And as I started down that path I knew finding the answer would, as Clint Eastword’s “Dirty Harry” Callahan character famously said, “Make my day!”

In fact, I realized that even though Hollywood is on the other side of the globe from where I reside, famous quotes from movies would provide useful guideposts as I embarked on my investigation.

“Greed is good.” That quote from the 80’s movie Wall Street was made back before near global financial meltdown made the concept questionable when it comes to the subject of finance. But it occurs to me that greed might be a positive force when it applies to a burning desire for other things. I for one want better and easier access to digital media content on my smartphone. And I am not the only one frustrated in getting the content I want when I am waiting for the MRT - I see fellow commuters frustrated as well. And that situation could get worse: the number of global application downloads is expected to reach 60 billion by 2013; that’s a lot of downloads and that is a lot of frustration if people aren’t getting what they want, when they want it.

The problem is not that there aren’t lots of media content providers willing to feed the growing greed for entertainment and engagement, but they are part of a discombobulated mob coming at us from different places in different ways. In the movie Forest Gump, Forest likes to quote his mother saying, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get”. But at least, Forest’s chocolates were all in the same box. With media today, you have different media stores for different types of media content, and for different types of devices. How you get video on your phone is different from how you get music, and it is different on your television from your PC. None of it makes for a sweet experience.

In Top Gun, the main characters Goose and Maverick were on the right track when they said they felt the need for speed. What we all need is a solution that provides us with fast and easy access to the media content we want, when we want it and on the device we want. A digital media store solution is what we need, delivering a satisfying blend of music, applications, games, e-books, video, and more – across all our touch points from a single, cloud-based “entertainment hub”. It is the type of solution that offers us a one-stop shop where we can easily discover, acquire and enjoy any media content, across all our connected devices and wherever we are. And, not only that; over time the solution gets to know our tastes and preferences - so that content offerings can be tailored.

In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy says, “there’s no place like home.” But, that just isn’t true any more because a digital media store solution allows us to access content at home, at the office, in the shopping mall, on the road or wherever we are connected. 

Just because the solution exists does not mean we will get it. Mobile and convergent service providers might be asking, as Arizona Cardinal’s wide receiver Rod Tidwell says in Jerry Maguire, “Show me the money?” That’s a fair request and one that can be effectively addressed as well. After all, we are already paying them for our current services. Providing us with better and more interesting services would prevent us from invoking the famous words from The Terminator, “Hasta la vista, Baby.”

Service providers know how networks and our various devices work, so if anyone can make it all work together - they are in the best position. An improved user experience is the next logical step and it is one we want them to take. They don’t even need to have the faith of Kevin Costner’s character in Field of Dreams. We can assure them: if they build it, we will come - and as the Don Corlione in The Godfather would tell them, that’s an offer they can’t refuse.  

Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) offers a Digital Media Store that would make our day. More information on how your network can make your dreams possible can be found by reviewing Alcatel-Lucent’s Application and Content Value Chain resource.