“In much the same way it upended online distribution of music, Apple may now be poised to redefine the way movies are rented online. According to published reports, Apple and Fox plan to bring movie rentals to Apple’s popular iTunes Store, and through that to its family of iPod media players and the iPhone. The two companies are said to have concluded an agreement that will have Fox movies available for limited-time viewing via iTunes as they are released on DVD,” Arik Hesseldahl reports for BusinessWeek.
Apple competitors’ offerings are “hard to use and their movies don’t work with iPods, among the most popular digital entertainment devices on the market, says JupiterResearch analyst Michael Gartenberg. ‘Apple will be bringing to the table its famous ease-of-use and its popular player,’ Gartenberg says. ‘For all intents and purposes, if something doesn’t work with the iPhone or the iPod, it doesn’t exist.’ Some of the services aren’t compatible with Apple’s Macintosh computers, either,” Hesseldahl reports.
“Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs may announce the rental plan on Jan. 15, during his keynote address at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco… As much as the Apple-Fox deal could shake up online film rental, it’s also likely to breathe new life into Apple TV, a digital media also-ran,” Hesseldahl reports. “…Apple hasn’t disclosed the number of Apple TV devices sold, but market research firm iSuppli has estimated the number at less than a million units. The number could rise quickly once movies are available for rent from iTunes.”
MacDailyNews Take: Let’s say 900,000 Apple TV units sold since March 21, 2007. That’s an average of 100,000 units per month. At $350 each (and that’s probably a bit low as most Apple TV buyers would opt for the larger 160GB hard drive model at $399 vs. the 40GB $299 model), that’s $35 million per month from Apple TV. $315 million in 9 months. Can we please have an “also-ran” like that? And how have competitors done with products that claim to do similar things as Apple TV? “Much worse” would be an excellent guess. Apple TV denigrators seem to forget that when and if Apple turns on movie and TV show rentals (and they include Apple TV, which they almost certainly would), there will be 1 million units out there owned by customers who are thirsting for content. We are poised and ready to rent. If the rumors are true, iTunes movie and TV show rentals are going to be much bigger and growth will happen much faster than many seem to realize. Watch and see – literally.
Hesseldahl continues, “Apple TV currently has a set of options related to the iTunes Store that for now do nothing. Analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray (PJC) expects that soon consumers with Apple TV boxes will be able to rent movies from their living room by using iTunes via the TV… Reports say Apple will allow future Fox DVD releases to be ‘ripped’ to iTunes collections in much the same way that music can be ripped from a CD… Earlier rumors had said that movies would be playable [on Macs, iPods, iPhones, Apple TVs, anything Apple comes up with in the future, and Windows PCs] for 30 days for a price of $2.99.”
Full article here.
If Apple pulls the trigger on releasing content for rent, then the flood gates of video will stream forth to your hungry little eyes.
Just watch and see.
Hobby, indeed!
The Dude’s only problem is with iTunes not playing nice with AC3 surround sound. I have to trick it into playing an AVI file with AC3 passthrough by using Perian and QT Pro to convert the AVI to a referenced .mov file… then take the .mov file and throw it in iTunes. Lot of work for what should already be supported IMO.
Maybe iTunes and the Apple TV will support MKV files and AC3 passthrough natively… that would make my day.
The Dude abides.
@ Crippled TV: “3- How about built-in Bluetooth, so we can use our iPod Touches or iPhones for a controller/keypad?”
As much as I love my new Touch it has no Bluetooth.
“iTunes movie rentals could reinvigorate Apple TV”
Could …. but won’t …. unless they allow the user to stream ANYTHING from their Mac. Until then, the TV offers nothing over my set-top cablebox where I can already rent movies in DVD quality with surround sound. As it is now, the TV is just another ham-fisted product tied to a proprietary service.
Brau,
I agree about renting movies with pay-per-view. I find this to be a quick and economical way to view movies. If it’s something I really like I will then buy the DVD.
Unfortunately, I have Time Warner Cable. I only like to watch in the widescreen format, and these knuckleheads have just about eliminated that option. Last weekend there were only three movies, and they were turds.
They used to have more, but it seems like since they started the HD channels, they have dropped them. I hope you have more choices than I do.
@ El Guapo
Touché.
ATV can do HD easily as proven with the HD PodCast at iTunes. The images are stunning. Just need that 5.1 DD track shoved in there and ATV will be awesome.
“People need to realize that products take time to mature”,
And that some people, like Ballmer – never do!
Let’s all hope that the Zune never matures either.
d
i do mean the PRODUCT!
d