Best Buy gets into movie downloads as DVD sales tank

Ask any connected consumer these days, and they'll most likely tell you that the physical media universe is on its way out. All entertainment from music to movies will be on memory cards and hard drives from here on out.

Well, not quite. Traditional DVDs have not become extinct just yet, but that day will come. Before that time, Best Buy is experimenting with movie downloads via a partnership with CinemaNow. No, Best Buy doesn't want you to stay away from stores and only download from home. DVD traffic is what keeps quite a bit of incremental shopping dollars marching into Best Buy's coffers every year.

No, the retailer wants to sell devices that would automatically sync to CinemaNow's services and allow consumers to get all their movie fixes as downloadable files. Dock that device in your home theater and voila -- a replacement for DVD.

The retailer better hurry up. In fact, offering to sell CinemaNow's digital movies via its own website would keep consumer engaged with the brand even in the online world instead of the brick-and-mortar one. And that's good for Best Buy's prospects in the year 2014. By then, will DVDs as we know them even exist?