CEO reveals deal to release Disney films through iTunes
Jim Jamieson
Province
Apple CEO Steve Jobs uses a clip from Pirates of the Caribbean to demonstrate how Apple customers will be able to download movies with his company’s iTunes software and play them on computers and iPods. Photograph by : The Associated Press
Latest — and even tinier — Apple iPod Shuffle was also released yesterday, along with latest iPod Nanos, in background. Nanos will come in five colours and with 24-hour batteries. Photograph by : The Associated Press
Apple inched its way farther into your living room yesterday.
At a news conference in San Francisco, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled a flurry of new products and services, including the launch of downloadable movies for sale at the iTunes Music Store, a revamped iPod line and a wireless router that streams media content from a computer to a TV set.
The iTunes Music Store will initially carry movies only from the Walt Disney Co. studios, where Jobs is a board member. By contrast, Amazon.com’s movie service launched last week with distribution deals with seven studios — but not Disney.
Jobs said more than 75 films — including Pirates of the Caribbean and Cars — will be available on iTunes from Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax. New releases will be priced at $12.99 US when pre-ordered and during the first week of sale, or $14.99 afterward. Library titles will sell for $9.99. The movies will be available only in the U.S., with international sales expected in 2007.
Jobs also showed off a compact gadget, dubbed iTV, which will allow consumers to watch movies bought online — as well as other digital content stored on a computer — on a connected TV set. It will sell for $299 and be available early next year.
Other online movie services already exist but haven’t attracted many customers, but Apple is clearly expecting its success with music and TV content to continue with movies.
Bringing digital content stored on a computer and playing it back on a TV has been a challenge for online movie providers.
“We think [iTV] completes the picture here,” said Jobs. “Now I could download content from iTunes. I could enjoy it on my computer, my iPod and my big-screen television in the living room.”
Apple has increased the resolution on videos, from 320×240 to 640×480. It won’t be close to high-definition quality, but will play acceptably on a TV screen. But the expected download time (30 minutes at five megabits per second) will be tediously long for most high-speed Internet users.
Simon Fraser University professor of communication Richard Smith said he was disappointed with the announcements as there was nothing new on the long-awaited Apple-branded cellular phone.
“For a lot of people there is no experience of the Internet apart from the phone,” said Smith. “The phone is outside their realm, so they could be making sure they’ve done it right.”
Analysts have said they expect to see such a video/music phone in the next four to six months.
Smith said the wireless device would be a niche market initially and certainly in Canada, where the Music Store movies won’t be available at least until next year.
“It becomes a tool to get into that market early,” he said.
“It shows they are continuing to maintain their lead.”
SHINY NEW APPLES
– A 24-hour battery life on the iPod Nano. Models, ranging in capacity from two gigabytes to eight gigabytes, will come in five colours and sell for between $169 and $299.
– A larger-capacity, video-capable iPod that features an 80-gigabyte hard drive for storing digital music, video and other content. It will retail for $399.
– A smaller size for the iPod Shuffle, which also will sport a built-in clip. It will sell for $89.
© The Vancouver Province 2006
