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Since its introduction by Apple on January 9th, 2001, iTunes has become one of the most popular music library organization apps ever.  It started off simple and eventually became what it is today, a place not only to organize files, but to shop, learn, and watch.  With so much growth, large deals, and new features in the past few years, it makes me wonder where iTune’s place will be in the future.  When digital sales take over physical media, will it be because of iTunes?  Will iTunes one day start a revolution in how we purchase and handle all of our DVDs, music, and TV shows?  Or will iTunes eventually slip away into the past and be replaced by a whole new app or movement?

With the direction iTunes is headed now, it seems like it very well could be the driving force behind moving totally to digital sales for some.  It has one of the biggest music selections available anywhere, allows you to rent movies, releases new DVD titles the same day as hard copies, and contains all sort of other media, such as podcasts and TV shows.  With only a couple more deals and updates, iTunes could soon be the place to go for all of your media.  This would almost completely eliminate the need for physical media.  Don’t get me wrong though, I don’t think this will happen anytime very soon, but it is possible.  But what would seal the deal for moving completely to digital media?

For one, there would need to be a better TV show deal.  Right now shows currently go for $1.99 a pop and come out after the TV airs them.  In order for someone to switch entirely to iTunes TV shows, they would have to come out almost right after the TV version does and would have to have a better subscription model.  People can watch them for free on TV, iTunes has to compete with that if they want to cause the switch.  iTunes does have one edge in this category over TVs, though, and that’s the ability to watch the content whenever you want and where ever you want provided you have an iPod, etc.

Furthermore, it would have to be easier to achieve a cinematic feelings with digital media.  Currently people can pop a Blu-ray disc into their nice 100 inch projection home entertainment center, sit back and enjoy.  iTunes would have to be able to do this.  Not the actual app itself, but maybe another piece of hardware, such as the Apple TV.  Once Apple makes the Apple TV practical enough for everyone to use instead of their DVD players, we would be that much closer.  However, this would only happen if iTunes got enough movies and TV shows in their library where people would find it easier than either a) going to a rental store with thousands of movies or b) simply using another service such as OnDemand.

However, there are plenty of reasons why this won’t happen soon, too.  For one, the small amounts of bandwidth many people have limits how easy it is to download large HD files efficiently.  Furthermore, computer screens just don’t provide that same feel as sitting in your living room with a nice plasma (some may argue that this is where the Apple TV may step in).  Finally, ease of use comes into play.  With so much DRM these days, one can never be sure when and where their files will work.  With DVDs, people can bring them anywhere and just pop them into a DVD player knowing it will always play.

What do you think about all this?  Will iTunes be at the forefront of a digital revolution or is there still too much to consider?