Demise of the CD/DVD?

Netflix has rolled out on-demand movies streamed to your home. It's only available in certain areas for now probably for bandwidth reasons. We've all seen this coming but it struck me that we are probably also seeing the beginning of the end to the CD/DVD format.

Formats come and go. VHS and Beta lasted a long time. We lived with 3.5" floppies for years and didn't bat an eye when they disappeared from PC's and laptops. We may now be seeing the end of the line for CD/DVD format. With the ubiquity of 4-8 gig USB thumb drives and now 200+ gig portable (USB) hard drives what's the point in burning CD's or DVD's?

For now the CD is the main format for playing your downloaded music (does anyone still buy CD's from a store?) in your car. That's beginning to change, too, as my Prius has an iPod connector. All you really need is a USB port on the dash and that CD changer in the trunk is toast.

DVD's still have a place for making and sharing home videos. I've had hours of fun editing water polo games so the girls could re-live the victories and learn from the losses. But an XBox can pull video files off your family server. How long before your cable box can do the same? Or, access YouTube directly? How about a USB connector to access the videos off your portable video hard drive?

Laptops and PC's already have the connector of choice, USB, ready to replace the bulky and slow CD/DVD drive. Maybe the next generation of laptop will use that real estate for more batteries or how about a retractable USB cord? I'd use it to sync my phone and copy podcasts. Or will Bluetooth make cords redundant, too?

Someday you'll be asked if you still have that old DVD player.