What starts as a weird love letter to Apple ends as a keen examination of its chances of success in the one place it still hasn’t conquered: your living room. A rather long piece in today’s Times looks at whether or not Apple’e latest scheme to release movies on the same day and date as their DVD release will have any sort of specific effect on sales of Apple TV, and any general effect on Apple’s performance in the living room.
Unlike when iTunes was still shiny and new (and, essentially, the only place to go for legal music downloads), Apple doesn’t have a stranglehold on the legal movie download business. You’ve got Amazon Unbox, Xbox Live Marketplace, and any number of other solutions. Apple can’t throw its weight around like it used to, as it did when it gifted us 99 cent music singles.
Not being a movie fan, I personally couldn’t give a toss what happens in this space, but I look forward to seeing if Apple can co-opt another industry, forcing it to bend to its will.
How about apple launches the movies the same day they are released in theaters… and eliminates an entire industry that is completely unnecessary. I don’t want to go to the theater and pay $10 to use their facility. Nor do I want to wait 6 months to a year to download the movie because of a “marketing strategy,” instead of going to buy the movie as soon as I watch it for the first time(impulse buying).