04-12-2010, 12:01 AM
Winston wrote: I don't think the Netflix comparison is complete. I think Netflix provides online videos as a free addition to its DVD rental business. (I suppose one could read that the other way around too, but the DVD rental business is older and larger.) So the total package of what one can access with a Netflix account is a lot larger than the number of streaming videos available. According to Wikipedia Netflix has 100,000 titles in its library.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix
This got brought up in reference to apps available on the iPhone. So keep that in mind. The iPhone doesn't have a DVD player
It's probably fair to assume that the number of Netflix videos available for streaming will increase. And because Netflix streaming is free if you already have a Netflix account I think it provides very real competition to iTunes purchases.
Over the past couple years Netflix's instant watch selection has grown from 10,000 to 17,000. It's not even on pace to catch up to iTunes.
And then there's the issue of which videos are available. I have no info on this, but if Netflix is covering the most popular selections which are available in iTunes they could be covering a very high percentage of viewer interest even if they don't have as large a selection. The same is true for the book selections in comparing iTunes and Amazon. Isn't this how the Red Box video rental kiosks work?
I've been using Netflix's instant watch for about 10 years now. I know, what? 10 years? Yes, 10 years. Before Netflix used it another company used Starz. It's still Starz. Their selection is most certainly not based on what's popular. It's more so what they can get.