“If earlier reports are accurate, Steve Jobs will soon be in the movie rental business,” Dan Frommer reports for Silicon Alley Insider.
Frommer asks some yet-unanswered questions, including:
How much will rentals cost? In June, when the FT said Apple was in “advanced talks with Hollywood’s largest movie studios” to offer rentals, the price was $2.99 for a 30-day period. Most Amazon Unbox rentals range from 99 cents to $3.99 for a 24-hour viewing period. Our cable company usually wants $3 to $5 for an on-demand rental. Apple’s current iTunes movies from Disney cost about $10 to buy.
Can you rent to own?
Will rented movies play via the Apple TV?
Will Apple sell or rent movies via its Wi-Fi iTunes store for iPhones and iPod touches?
Will Apple offer HD movies for sale or for rent?
How will Blockbuster, Amazon, Netflix, Microsoft, Sony, cable, telco, and cellphone companies, and other rivals respond? Apple’s iPod line dominates the portable media player market, and the iPhone is taking a big chunk of the smartphone market. And now, it appears, there will finally be digital rentals compatible with Apple’s gadgets. Surely Jobs’ rivals haven’t been sitting around doing nothing. How will they fight back? Lower rental prices? More portability/less DRM? This should be a fun one!
Full article here.
A quick look at the smartphone and digital media player markets show quite clearly that Blockbuster, Amazon, Netflix, Microsoft, Sony, cable, telco, cellphone companies, and other potential rivals most certainly could have been and still are sitting around doing nothing. Sounds like a new group of companies are about to get run over by Apple. At least they can ask those who’ve been already pancaked by Apple’s iPod+iTunes+iPhone (Microsoft, Sony, Motorola, etc.) how it’ll feel.
I think the rentals will be between $2 and $4.
I’m going to “guess” that rentals will fall between $2.50 and $3.50.
I hope that Apple does not restrict film rentals solely to owners of AppleTV.
Considering current technological options, what are the estimated times to download a 2 hour film? What is the maximum time that the majority of consumers will be willing to wait to place an order then begin watching a film?
macnutt222:
I also hope that Apple limits cost of rentals to $4.00 for new releases and $2.00 for films greater than six months post release.
I’d say anywhere from $2.98 to $3.00.
How it will feel? My guess is buttery and with warm syrup. At the end of the day though, Netflix is a relatively decent company with a good business model. We’ll see how they do.
Here’s hoping that they make work through TiVo!
I’d say $2.99. Steve likes the .99 thing.
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But the good news is that, “The Best of Carrot Top”, “Richard Simmons Sings the Blues Live in Concert” and Ice Cube’s “Are We There Yet?” will be free.
“How it will feel?”
I say spongy and cool to the touch with just a hint of peppermint.
I just noticed that some of the music videos in my cart are now $1.49 rather than $1.99. For $12 bucks I can purchase 8 rather than 6 videos.
As for rentals, I don’t care much about new releases. I have numerous documentary films & older films in my NetFlix queue right now. I pay $14/month and watch about 10-12 films per month.
How will Blockbuster, Amazon, Netflix, Microsoft, Sony, cable, telco, and cellphone companies, and other rivals respond?
i am sorry but if the ppl at blockbuster have 4 brain cells to bang together they are already pestering Steve to get a kiosk that allows people to plug in their iPod and get movie rentals synced up for viewing and transfer to your computer from the pod.
….but i doubt they have 4 brain cells, so……
@shen,
Very good idea. I would have to agree with you that Blockbuster and other rental facilities may end up having to do this.
“….but i doubt they have 4 brain cells, so……”
The last bong hit in the back took them down to two. They now have a corporate wide neuron sharing plan. That explains the glacial pace of service and Napoleon Dynamite expressions.
I’m hoping for a subscription. $15 per month, but I would probably pay as much as $30 if it included TV and live TV streams.
A better question would be;
“How long will it take for DVD Jon to crack the DRM?”
Movies for $3 will appeal to a lot of people
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@ Fred
“What is the maximum time that the majority of consumers will be willing to wait to place an order then begin watching a film?”
No telling for sure, but the service could feasibly let you start watching as soon as there is enough stream in the buffer. I’d think 10 minutes would probably be plenty. But whatever the time, it would be significantly shorter than waiting for your Netflix to come in the mail.
Oh, and don’t look now, but Wall Street loves this news, apparently.
AAPL up $3.53 realtime.
Re: AAPL
Oops. I looked.
What a beautiful sight! And now a third of the market cap. of Exxon Mobil. Come on Apple!
I just find it disgraceful that (although its probably due to negotiation problems) we dont have and sort of movie/tv show options from Apple over here yet. Its been too long and I hope they dont delay for much longer!
If that’s the “rental” price I’ll say no thanks. I’ll stick with NetFlix. I’m paying $8.99 monthly to view some 6-8 offerings. I get true DVD quality plus access to those extra features. Besides, with my DSL access a download will take many hours. Nothing “instant” about that.
‘was traveling in FL recently, and downloaded “Mad Max” in my hotel room with their standard broadband. Movie started after a few minutes, no stutter or any anomalies at all. Felt just like I’d put a disk in.
Mel Gibson looked very young.
Redbox is $.99 for almost 2 days, so I think customer should have a choice:
$.99 for 48hrs, $1.99 for a week, $2.99 for a month,
and rent-to-buy option
“How long will it take for DVD Jon to crack the DRM?”
Why would you bother when downloadable movies are free on pirate sites or you could just use handbrake? Apple’s solution (if it is real) is for those who legitimately want to pay for rentals – me.
My questions are: how big is Fox’s movie library? Will they put their whole catalog online or just the old shows? Will it encourage others to jump on board?
“how big is Fox’s movie library?”
http://www.foxmovies.com/index.html
Click on Past Favorites.
“Will it encourage others to jump on board?”
Only those without hidden agendas, mild to severe retardation, Luddite philosophies or any combination of these attributes.
Here is why Apple will succeed where Amazon/TiVo/XBox360 fail.
It’s all about the girls. That is why Apple and Nintendo rule their markets. Its not the fanboys, it’s the fangirls.
Guys like their XBoxes and are happy to cart them out when the boys are over for some Halo, but girls are disgusted and leave the room when the XBox arives. Now pull out a Wii and the game changes. My wife wants to play, it’s fun for her. Same with the iPod. Remember how the PSP was supposed to smash the iPod do to it’s technical superiority’s. That didn’t happen because they didn’t sell it to the ladies. They sold it to fat, smelly hard-core gamers. The girls left the room. (And did you really think the girls would buy a brown and green Zune?)
Enter AppleTV. AppleTV will succeed beautifully because girls like Apple. It’s cute. It looks nice and is easy to use. And when you can rent movies for $2 and it gets some decent advertising (again to the girls not the guys) everyone will want one. Gen 1 Apple TV was just a beta test. 2008 Will be the year of AppleTV.