Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iTunes Movie Rentals in 2008?

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster


At tonight's Apple shareholder meeting, Apple's reportedly hinted at iTunes Movie rentals in the future.

Exact context is not available, with only a quote from analyst Gene Munster:

"Timing of this is difficult to determine, but we would expect [iTunes video rentals] sometime in 2008"
Click to expand...

Steve Jobs has long suggested that customers are only interested in music sales rather than rentals. Readers have noticed he has been very specific about referring to music only. There has long been speculation that Apple may introduce video-rentals, but no specific plans have been announced.

If you have the exact context of this portion of the shareholders meeting, please contact us.
 
I would for sure rent movies for $2-3.....that would even make me want to buy an appletv.

I would also like more of a variety of movies to choose from.....but that's all in time.
 
Having not purchased a single DVD since I realized that I rarely watch the DVDs I have purchsed, I can see this being a good thing.

Once I get an :apple:TV, I can see this being a much better way of getting movies on it.
 
dartzorichalcos said:
What's the point of renting movies? To me buying movies seems like a better choice than renting movies.
Click to expand...

There are movies you buy and others you might not buy, but would rent. For example, I could watch "The 400 Blows" once a month for the rest of my life, I'd watch Legally Blonde once, maybe twice. I'm sure the list is different for everyone.

I'm hoping the ability to rent is in addition to the ability to buy, and won't replace the current option. That said, I'm much more likely to rent most of the titles in their current selection than to buy them.
 
Knew it

It had to happen. I still haven't bought a movie on iTunes, TV shows but no movies. Most movies I only want to watch once.

But the question is will they be 720p? Will they have more movie studios on board? Like all of them?

I just canceled my cable, can I cancel my Netflix?
 
bkvideography said:
I would for sure rent movies for $2-3.....that would even make me want to buy an appletv.

I would also like more of a variety of movies to choose from.....but that's all in time.
Click to expand...

perhaps a lot of people will, too. could this be apple's intent all along? i like the idea of renting, because it doesn't clutter your hard drive with movies you've seen once or twice and will likely never see again.
 
Renting would be great, I have purchased two movies from iTunes and they were both crap. If it was a DVD I could have sold it, but now I'm stuck with 3GB of downloads I feel the need to keep on my HD 😡
 
HD rentals! 720p or better. That will make Apple TV useful... although I think I'll still buy a Mini instead... if Apple ever updates it to C2D or better.
 
I hope they'll do this. While I've bought a lot of music and a few tv shows off iTunes, I won't pay $10 to own a movie that only plays on my Mac/iPod. but would I rent a movie from iTunes? Heck yeah, as long as it's for a fair price...
 
Now you know

Now you know why the AppleTV has such a small hard drive. You only need to fit your que on there. Still, it needs a bigger one. 😉
 
Quotes and misquotes

Macrumors said:


At tonight's Apple shareholder meeting, Apple's reportedly hinted at iTunes Movie rentals in the future.

Exact context is not available, with only a quote from analyst Gene Munster:


Steve Jobs has long suggested that customers are only interested in music sales rather than rentals. Readers have noticed he has been very specific about referring to music only. There has long been speculation that Apple may introduce video-rentals, but no specific plans have been announced.

If you have the exact context of this portion of the shareholders meeting, please contact us.
Click to expand...
From MacWorld: When a shareholder asked Jobs for high-definition video content on iTunes and asked if his Apple TV could allow him to rent movies, the CEO smiled. “One never knows,” he said cryptically.

Phrasing suggests Jobs was smiling at HD video -- with or without rentals. However, my favorite quote from the session is a response to why Apple doesn't just hire more people to finish its products within established timeframes:

“I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check,” Jobs said. “If so, then Microsoft would have great products.”
 
Kwill said:
From MacWorld: When a shareholder asked Jobs for high-definition video content on iTunes and asked if his Apple TV could allow him to rent movies, the CEO smiled. “One never knows,” he said cryptically.

Phrasing suggests Jobs was smiling at HD video -- with or without rentals. However, my favorite quote from the session is a response to why Apple doesn't just hire more people to finish its products within established timeframes:

“I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check,” Jobs said. “If so, then Microsoft would have great products.”
Click to expand...

Damn analysts.

arn
 
dmelgar said:
HD rentals! 720p or better. That will make Apple TV useful... although I think I'll still buy a Mini instead... if Apple ever updates it to C2D or better.
Click to expand...

Interesting how the mini hasn't had an update in some time. Maybe Apple is just being slow about it, but maybe they are trying to encourage the adoption of the AppleTV over the mini.

And what about leopard? What will Apple do with FrontRow? Will they continue to improve it? Will they add HDMI to the mini? Could the mini be a more advanced version of the AppleTV? Larger hard drive, PVR, DVD (HD)?

What if they came out with a new mini with the larger form factor (7") of the AppleTV? Maybe a whole set of mini's. One with Blu-Ray another with just hard drives, or another with PVR? Add them to your AppleTV as you need them.
 
Macrumors said:
Steve Jobs has long suggested that customers are only interested in music sales rather than rentals. Readers have noticed he has been very specific about referring to music only. There has long been speculation that Apple may introduce video-rentals, but no specific plans have been announced.
Click to expand...


STEVE IS RIGHT. Very smart man! Rent your movies and buy your music.

Renting is for PIRATES. 😀
 
Blu-Ray / HD-DVD killer

If Apple can offer Hi-Def rentals through :apple:tv they could kill two birds with one stone:

1. The Hi-Def format wars
2. the inability to rent a movie on the fly from netflix

I would much sooner buy an :apple:tv than a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD player if I could rent hi-def movies from apple. I would also cancel my netflix in a heartbeat.
 
Object-X said:
I just canceled my cable, can I cancel my Netflix?
Click to expand...

While I don't think I could cancel Netflix entirely (I watch too many subtitled movies and listen to too many commentary tracks)...it would be nice to have an online service to turn to for when I reach Netflix's secret "quota" (which seems to be 50 a month for the plan I have) and they start shipping my movies from the other side of the country.
 
dartzorichalcos said:
Perhaps the second generation :apple:TV will have a bigger hard drive. Like 80GB hard drive and a option of 100GB hard drive.
Click to expand...

See my previous post. I think Apple is going to come out with a product line with the same form factor as the AppleTV. One will have HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. One will just be a hard drive expansion, anohter could have PVR functionality. Add to your AppleTV modularly the functionality you want.

They could even do a new mini with the same form factor with all of the above.
 
dartzorichalcos said:
What's the point of renting movies? To me buying movies seems like a better choice than renting movies.
Click to expand...

What's the point of buying movies? To me renting movies seems like a better choice than buying movies. 🙂

Bottom line, Apple needs to pick up the pace and roll out HD offerings. Now. That may delay the demand for rentals for a bit. Even 720p would give me a reason to buy, since it's better than what I can get on DVD. As things exist right now, there is no compelling reason for me to buy a movie in iTunes since 1) it's no better quality than DVD, and 2) I can just rent it via Netflix.

Microsoft is already offering 720p video online, and I find the idea of Apple lagging behind Microsoft in terms of quality distasteful at best.
 
Are we ready for 1080p?

sir42 said:
If Apple can offer Hi-Def rentals through :apple:tv they could kill two birds with one stone:

1. The Hi-Def format wars
2. the inability to rent a movie on the fly from netflix

I would much sooner buy an :apple:tv than a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD player if I could rent hi-def movies from apple. I would also cancel my netflix in a heartbeat.
Click to expand...

Just to be clear, when you say hi-def movies from Apple are you saying 720p or 1080p? Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are 1080p. If you have the rig that's the way to go. But 1080p is still high end most HDTV sets are either 720p or 1080i.

I could see Apple doing 720p movies since the AppleTV is capable of doing that, but they would have to come out with a whole new unit with 1080p abilities and a larger hard drive to compete with Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. I don't see that happening for at least two years.

It seems more plasible that Apple could sell a seperate HD-DVD or Blu-Ray drive that plugs into the AppleTV. I don't think there are suffecient numbers of 1080p sets out there to make downloading in that resolution profitable yet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back