by Playfuls Staff |
12th April 2007
Last year Amazon tried to keep a few steps in front of Apple,
by announcing the release of Amazon Unbox merely days before the event where
Jobs presented the introduction of movies on iTunes. [more]
Amazon Unbox benefited from important support from numerous
production companies and television studios, and held the advantage of running
on any PC. iTunes looked like a certain victim, at least as far as video
content goes.
Although he had been negotiating with movie studios for some
months (or so it was rumored), Steve Jobs didn’t manage to convince anybody. As
a result, iTunes opened its doors with only a few Disney titles.
The apple of discord between Jobs and movie studios seems to
have been iTunes’ pricing policy. The Apple boss pleaded for unitary pricing
scheme while movie studios didn’t want to repeat the experience music studios
had been through and asked for differentiated prices.The catalog of movies
available on Amazon Unbox was therefore much fuller and more varied.
It has been only a few months and ITunes Movies Store,
adopting the small-but-certain-steps approach has succeeded in convincing
Lionsgate and Paramount Pictures to join in.
iTunes registered a new victory yesterday, when MGM
announced that it would soon start selling its movies through iTunes. Apple’s
online store’s catalog has 500 new titles now, and MGM promises more additions
within the next weeks.
As was expected, MGM movies can be watched on iPod, Mac and
PC, as well as on Apple’s latest technological marvel, Apple TV.
Although its partnership with MGM is an undeniable victory
for iTunes, Apple still has to convince Warner Bros, Sony Pictures and
Universal before the offer is complete. Don’t be too surprised if, over the
following months, iTunes announces partnerships with the above-mentioned movie
studios.
While celebrating 100 million sold iPods some days go, Apple
announced that in the time elapsed since iTunes Movie Store’s launch the
company has sold 2 million movies.
Is this the main argument that persuaded MGM to embark on
the iTunes ship?
Amazon Unbox has not made public any details concerning the
number of movies sold or any other figures that would indicate its
performances.
Has Apple begun the success it had in the industry music
with cinema? Will Apple TV + iTunes become in the Hollywood
industry what IPod + iTunes has been for music? If Apple manages to convince
the rest of the movie studios to collaborate, the answer is ‘yes.’ Until then,
the correct response is ‘maybe.’
