Samsung opens mobile movie store

Partly as a way to attract more customers to their mobile handsets, Samsung has launched a movie download service in the U.K. and Germany.

Samsung Movies, currently in beta, hosts roughly 500 films from Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal and Momentum Pictures, available for any PC or compatible Samsung phone. An additional 1,000 movies are expected to follow. Though the service is only offered to users in the U.K. and Germany at the moment, the company plans to expand through Europe later this year, according to a press release.

In launching the service, Samsung hopes to showcase its Tocco Ultra Edition handset. The mobile phone has a 2.8” Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode screen and can play movies for 4.5 hours on a single charge. As more Samsung products come to market, they’ll also be compatible with Samsung Movies. Down the line, the company wants to add compatibility for portable media players and televisions.

Movies start at £2.49 for a one-day rental and £4.99 to own. New releases, however, can cost up to £13.99 to purchase.  The user gets two copies of a purchased movie, one for the computer and one for a mobile device, so it seems there is some DRM involved. Also, the user can’t download directly to the phone; all movies have to be loaded from a PC.

Even though the movie service isn’t expected to be a major profit source, Samsung Head of Content Nick Turner-Samuels told MocoNews that the possible sale of more Samsung products is an added benefit. He also said it’s the "right time" to launch a mobile movie service, because the technology has made watching on handsets pleasurable.

Will it work? Like the mobile music store Microsoft launched in the U.K. earlier this year, this proprietary movie store is a bit worrisome. The inability to play Samsung Movies on any other mobile device just gives the user less control over the content they paid for. If I download 10 movies from Samsung, the last thing I want is to be locked in to their brand if I want to enjoy those movies forever.