“For Apple to make the most of its peerless products, experts say it will need to improve relations with the folks who create the content to run on them,” Peter Burrows reports for BusinessWeek.
“At Macworld, studios including Disney and News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox are expected to announce support for a new iTunes movie rental service. Fox and others are also expected to make their newest releases available at iTunes, something only Disney currently does. But Apple is clinching such deals in part because of its newfound willingness to compromise, say sources. Apple has agreed to increase the wholesale price it pays to studios, from $14 to closer to the $16 they get when they sell a DVD to Wal-Mart, say people familiar with the negotiations,” Burrows reports.
“It doesn’t help that Apple’s newly introduced Apple TV, designed to send movies wirelessly from the home computer to a TV, has met with criticism for having poor resolution and offering access to movies only through iTunes. ‘In the music business, [Jobs] made a confusing situation simple,’ says Abe Peled, CEO of set-top box software maker NDS Group, which is 72%-owned by Rupert Murdoch. ‘With video, he is trying to make a simple solution difficult. People don’t need one more box on top of their TV sets.,'” Burrows reports.
MacDailyNews Take: “People don’t need one more box on top of their TV sets,” says a guy who sells software for non-Apple set-boxes who may or may not be worried that Apple’s box won’t be added next to his box, but instead replace it. Thanks for the newsflash, Mr. Burrows. Why don’t you just post Abe’s press releases verbatim next time? We know, we know, that’d be more work than you put into this article. And Apple TV is capable of high resolution, it’s Hollywood and/or Apple who have to bring the high def content to iTunes. Don’t incorrectly blame the hardware.
Burrows continues, “Of course, Apple could always adapt to a new paradigm in music or video distribution, but it may well require a greater degree of cooperation than Jobs will abide. Says a media titan who recently approached Jobs about exploring ways to work together but didn’t get far: ‘Steve doesn’t want partners.'”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Navy Tim” for the heads up.]
“Steve doesn’t want partners,” says one guy — sorry, nameless “media titan” — who perhaps had nothing of value to offer? Apple seems to partner perfectly well when they want to do so (examples: Disney, O2, CBS, Fox, AT&T Wireless, Google, etc.). Have fun trying to find “experts” in Burrow’s report who “say Apple will need to improve relations with the folks who create the content.” We can’t find any “experts” in Burrows’ article, unless, if by “experts,” Burrows means “Apple’s competitors and spurned suitors.” The one independent-seeming fellow in Burrows’ article who might be labeled “expert,” eMarketer analyst Paul Verna was quoted as saying, simply, “Everyone is flexing their muscles to prove they don’t need each other. But the truth is, they do.”