No Flash or WPF/E in the Wal-Mart movie deal hurts customers

In the long run, the lack of DRM in Flash probably won't be a big deal. I hate DRM as much as the next person and I think it's a waste of time (as we've seen by how quickly Blu-ray and HD-DVD were cracked). But right now, in order to bring the major studios on (which means movies people actually want to watch), Wal-Mart had to go with a DRM solution. That means no Linux and no Mac. From the FAQ:

What operating systems do you support?
We currently support Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Vista (32 bit only no Macintosh or Linux)

Now the prognosis for Wal-Mart's latest move isn't good. Om thinks it's probably DOA and Mike notes how crowded this space is. Both valid points, but the fact remains, Wal-Mart is the only place I can go to get movies that I give damn about.

As said as it is, DRM is still an issue. I wonder what kind of revenue this brings in for Microsoft, and what kind of revenue could it have brought in for Adobe had they been able to license a DRM'd video solution. In the end, customers lose because Wal-Mart figures they can live without the other 5%. They don't even support the Firefox browser on their website. But this also puts a pretty bright spotlight on "WPF/E". If it can provide a cross-platform way to deliver DRM'd windows media, then suddenly Wal-Mart can offer videos to more customers. Is that something they're looking into? How important is cross-platform? How important is DRM? Wal-Mart's success or failure with their new store may tell us.