A �media center� could be an integral part of every home by 2015. But movies on demand need a willing Hollywood and a super-PVR -- In a recent interview with Japanese web site TechOn, Star Wars director George Lucas discussed the impact of digital movie-making on cinema and touched on the rise of home entertainment servers in the digital home. Lucas is an unabashed devotee of digital film and digital projection � the second Star Wars prequel, Attack of the Clones, was the first movie to be shot entirely using a high-definition 24fps digital camera, Sony�s HDW-F900. The creator of that galaxy far, far away sees a digital future where more Hollywood movies will be shot in this way, more filmmakers will get their work shown and movies will be distributed over the Internet. �I'm not sure how it will actually play out,� Lucas is quoted as saying, �but it seems to be something like the same day and date of a movie being released in a movie theatre, you can also get it over the Internet.� �I think eventually [Internet distribution] will be the future of Hollywood,� Lucas said in another interview, this time with US news channel CNBC. But like many industry observers, he is also realistic about this future happening any time soon.
The world of eCommerce payments has evolved. As we look toward the latter half of this decade, we're witnessing a transformation in how digital commerce operates, with a clear shift toward localized payment solutions within a global marketplace. The numbers tell a compelling story. According to Juniper Research's latest analysis, global eCommerce transactions are set to reach $11.4 trillion by 2029, marking a 63 percent increase from $7 trillion in 2024. This growth isn't just about volume – it's about fundamental changes in how people pay for goods and services online. Perhaps most striking is the projected dominance of Alternative Payment Methods (APMs), which are expected to account for 69 percent of global transactions by 2029, with 360 billion transactions processed through these channels. eCommerce Payments Market Development What makes this shift particularly interesting is how it reflects the democratization of digital commerce. Traditional card-based systems ar...