Appletell

When announcing iTunes Movie Rentals, Steve Jobs said to expect 100 High Definition, 5.1 Surround Sound titles available for rent by February.  Although Apple has made this goal, they are really short in their goal of 1,000 standard definition titles.  396 short, to be exact. Although there are 197 HD titles, of which exactly 100 are 5.1 Surround Sound, there are a relatively meager 604 SD titles.  Also of note is the fact that only six (yes, only six) titles have been added to the content library since March.

This may seem very un-Apple to set a seemingly attainable goal and miss by a mile, but they managed to do so.  If Apple ever wants to be a substantial competitor for Amazon’s Unboxed or Netflix’ Instant Watch, both of which have thousands of titles (it is still pretty foggy on whether or not Apple is really actually trying to compete with those two companies). 

Via [iLounge]

iTunes movies look to have been very successful. Apple has managed to get contracts with all the major movie studios, and their child companies. Almost every new hit movie will be on the iTunes Store, ready for downloading in an iPod-friendly format - to watch on a Mac, PC or iPod. Sillicon Alley Insider is reporting that Disney today announced that 4 million movies had been sold on iTunes - that’s $123 million. Disney also recently announced a digital sales goal of $1 billion; this includes revenue from advertising online (e.g ad revenue from online video viewing or from any of its sites), online games subscriptions, movie and music downloads, and e-commerce that is not related to its theme parks.

iTunes movies are currently limited to the USA only. Steve promised that the rest of the world will be seeing iTunes movie rentals later this year - this should have a huge impact on the revenue from movie sales.

Via [MacRumors]

Photo by MacRumors

Apple TV “Take 2” was announced at MacWorld. It sports a great, fresh interface that consists of a two column centered box. In the two columns are the options, arranged as in column view in the finder. (See above picture)

The AppleTV no longer needs a computer to get movies and rentals. It has WiFi and you can make purchases and rentals right from your living room. You can get DVD quality video and HD + Dolby 5.1.

Apple hopes that iTunes movie rentals and the non need of a computer will push the AppleTV’s success in the video market.

Along with rumors of Fox partnering with Apple for movie rentals this morning, rumors of DVD copying have risen as well. Apple’s infamous DRM system, FairPlay, will be used to allow the copying of Fox DVDs to iTunes, iPods, iPhones, and AppleTVs. Although users have been able to copy DVDs and import them for a while, a one click system would be easier and faster. Hopefully, other studios will hop on board if this is a success. All will hopefully be unveiled at the Stevenote.

Via [Valleywag]