Downloads Vs. Retail, some truths
We've been dealing with MP3s for over ten years now and even with the huge market single-handedly driven by the iPod, downloads of music are still less than a quarter of the way people get music. It's still the purchase of an actual disc that has nearly 80% of the market!
As it's been said, there's just intangible that's important to us for owning something that we can lay our hands on and says its ours.
Furthermore, a lot of us are jaded by the fact we live in or near a major metropolitan city that has the conveniences that affords us and that includes high-speed Internet access. Just as it is with CD sales, the vast majority of the citizens of the US get their TV images from over the air broadcasts, have no cable or sat service, and if (and that's a big if) they have an internet connection, chances are it's either dial-up or a very low-speed DSL connection. Because of that, they could never download large files such as those that would be needed for an HD product.
Downloads can be an important part of how we get products, but it can't totally replace the outright purchase of media on a disc, drive, or non-volitile memory chip, and its going to remain that way for many decades to come.
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