01-15-2008, 08:56 PM
The MacBook Air is cool, but I don't think it will have the long term impact of the other major announcement today... that of movie rentals via iTMS and the AppleTV.
The potential revenue stream is HUGE if they make a successful push with the AppleTV units.
They've made it so simple, it could easily do for video based media what the iPod has done for audio based media.
It may take a couple of years to *really* catch on (as the iPod did) but when it does, watch out! It already has a number of other freebie tie-ins like YouTube, flickr and movie trailers that may attract casual users (plus sharing iPhoto Albums and iMovies), so TV show and Movie rentals will be a natural extension once people are comfortable with the interface.
And frankly, people are much more likely to rent *once* a movie than they would be a music Album, which they might listen to many times over.
I bet eventually they add the ability to "re-rent" the same movie again at significant discount in the future... say $0.99 each time after you've rented it the first time at full price.
As an investor I'm encouraged at where Apple is going with this, even if as a Mac person I wish the Mac offereings this time around were a bit more compelling.
Cheers,
Jem
The potential revenue stream is HUGE if they make a successful push with the AppleTV units.
They've made it so simple, it could easily do for video based media what the iPod has done for audio based media.
It may take a couple of years to *really* catch on (as the iPod did) but when it does, watch out! It already has a number of other freebie tie-ins like YouTube, flickr and movie trailers that may attract casual users (plus sharing iPhoto Albums and iMovies), so TV show and Movie rentals will be a natural extension once people are comfortable with the interface.
And frankly, people are much more likely to rent *once* a movie than they would be a music Album, which they might listen to many times over.
I bet eventually they add the ability to "re-rent" the same movie again at significant discount in the future... say $0.99 each time after you've rented it the first time at full price.
As an investor I'm encouraged at where Apple is going with this, even if as a Mac person I wish the Mac offereings this time around were a bit more compelling.
Cheers,
Jem