Steve Jobs announced today at Apple’s annual MacWorld conference that the company will offer movie rentals through its iTunes service.
On board are the majority of the major studios ready to let iTunes users rent their library of titles. Rentals are active for 30 days and then 24 hours once a user starts viewing. One of the biggest turnoffs though is the fact that new releases don’t show up until 30 days after they have been released on DVD, something the studios probably demanded so that this venture does erode their DVD sales. Library titles cost $2.99 while new releases are $3.99.
iTunes users can watch these titles on their computers or upgrade to a new and improved AppleTV, which will allow them to wirelessly download movies directly to the box.
I think this fits in the “nice-to-have” category, but it’s hardly a game-changer. The price is right, but I don’t think the content model has anything on Netflix or Blockbuster. In those services, you can opt to pay a flat fee and rent a seemingly unlimited number of DVDs per month and also watch a large number of them online.
If anything, Netflix should be taking note and adapting their model such that they could offer the same unlimited service through downloads. It would work the same - you have to somehow deactivate one rental to get the next.
I will be sticking with Netflix for the time being, but I applaud Apple’s continual innovation in their product space.
