Apple video move divides industry
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The technology world is split over whether Apple's foray into movie downloads will be a success.
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Handset-to-handset fighting Whenever a single monolithic company has launched against the globe spanning iTunes, Apple has been able to move the goalposts and push further and further towards a monopolistic market share of online music, but this week a genuine challenge has emerged, one that we are certain will dent the success of Apple, and we suspect that it will be reflected in the companyâs share price before too long.â¦
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Just when it seemed like the competition was encroaching on the iPod&#39;s turf, Apple has broken away from the pack with a new and improved version of its hugely popular portable media player.
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Apple Inc  will start renting movies over the Internet, Chief Executive Steve Jobs said on Tuesday, moving the iPhone and iPod maker into a very competitive market.
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Apple's new video-rental service requires a late-model iPod or iPhone, customers have discovered. Video rentals from iTunes won't play on iPods that predate the latest models, released in September 2007.
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An analyst for JPMorgan Chase made headlines recently by saying Apple would soon release an iPhone resembling its nano media player.  One of his colleagues, however, disagrees.
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(InfoWorld) - NBC Universal's pullout from the iTunes online store is more of a loss for Apple and points to fierce resistance among media companies to potential Apple dominance of online video sales, an industry analyst said. On Friday, Apple announced it won't sell NBC TV shows for the upcoming television season after NBC's decision not to renew its iTunes contract. Apple explained that NBC wanted to increase its wholesale price for each episode by so much that Apple would have had to charge $4.99 per episode instead of the current rate of $1.99 for all videos on the site. Apple wouldn't agree to that price change. Shows from ABC, CBS, and News Corp.'s FOX and The CW, plus 50 cable networks, are available on iTunes for the flat rate. The incident reflects how poorly the iTunes video store has done relative to the iTunes music store, said James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester Research. "It shows how paltry and uninfluential the video side of the iTunes house is," he said. Few major music labels could similarly afford to pull out of iTunes, which dominates the online music industry. iTunes does make up the bulk of the online video resale market, but the market is small. Because the segment is still budding, many of the media companies are resisting Apple's attempt to dominate the video market as it does the online music business, he said. Forrester expects the online video resale business to generate about $300 million this year with iTunes taking in most of that. He estimates that NBC will bring in about $60 million from iTunes video sales this year. The loss of that revenue would be "not that big of a cost if it helps them undermine Apple's monopoly aspirations in the video world," McQuivey said. In the meantime, NBC is building a new platform for watching shows on its own Web site for free with paid advertising. NBC has already sold its online advertising inventory for the upcoming season, which represents revenue it won't have to share with Apple. Revenue from that service is likely to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in a few short years, McQuivey said. The rift with NBC is more damaging to Apple than to NBC, he said, because Apple is pushing several video products, including the Apple TV, the iPhone, and video iPods. While other big content providers are probably cheering NBC's decision, they're unlikely to follow suit, McQuivey said. They may, however, use the incident to continue to push Apple to allow variable pricing. So far, Apple has insisted on a flat rate for all videos. Media companies would prefer to be able to charge more for exclusives or season finales, he said.
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Consumers, manufacturers and cable operators are all ready for video-on-demand, but the studios have balked.
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You can file the media center's failure under "doesn't play well with others." Unless Apple opens up the device to other video formats, it's doomed to fall far short of the iPod's stunning success. Commentary by Leander Kahney.
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(InfoWorld) - Talk about the coming iPhone and AppleTV deviceÂ dominated the discussion with the chief financial officer of AppleÂ at an investment conference in San Francisco Tuesday. Peter Oppenheimer, appearing at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference, declined to give specific unit sales forecasts for the new products but anticipated they will be strong. IDG News Service monitored the event via Webcast. "AppleTV will change the way people gather and purchase their digital content," said Oppenheimer of the $299 AppleTV, due out later this month. It is a set-top box that delivers digital content stored on a computer, including video purchased from Apple's iTunes online store, to a TV. However, the usefulness of the AppleTV may be tied to the amount of video content available on iTunes. Today, he said, 400 movies and 350 TV programs are available for downloads, with more added all the time. He said Apple recently reached agreements with film distributors Paramount Pictures and Lion's Gate Entertainment to sell downloads of their movies on iTunes. The much-anticipated Apple iPhone is scheduled to hit the market in June. The iPhone, which Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced at Macworld in January, features anÂ innovative touch-screen interfaceÂ on a combination phone, iPod, and e-mail and Internet access device. It will sell for $499 or $599 depending on storage capacity, and will require a two-yearÂ contract with Cingular Wireless, the mobile division of AT&T. He declined to comment specifically on a March 1 report from Morgan Stanley analyst Kathryn Huberty, who interviewed him at the conference, in which she raised her forecast for 2007 iPhone sales to 8 million from an earlier forecast of 6 million, based on a survey of 2,500 U.S. customers. "Half the demand is coming from the traditional high-end handset market and half from Apple's customer base," Huberty said. While not commenting on the forecast, Oppenheimer said the iPhone will be a "breakthrough product." "Though Apple is new to the mobile phone market, we believe the addressable market will grow quickly," he said. In itsÂ last quarterly earnings reportÂ on Jan. 17, Apple posted net income of $1 billion, or $1.14 per share, on revenue of $7.1 billion for the three months ended Dec. 30, 2006. Analysts forecast Apple to earn $0.62 per share on revenue of $5.16 billion in the current quarter, according to a consensus estimate produced by Thomson Financial. In a 40-minute conversation with Huberty, including questions from other analysts in the audience, Oppenheimer did not discuss theÂ stock options scandal at Apple. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco are investigating whether Apple improperly accounted for and disclosed the backdating of options. No charges have been filed. Â
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Steve Jobs rolls out new lineup of digital media players.
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By James Forsyth  APPLE'S dominance of the digital download market has long been music to the ears of investors in the Californian computer giant.
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MacCentral - 2005 is "the year of HD video editing," Apple CEO Steve Jobs told the Macworld Conference &amp; Expo San Francisco keynote crowd, and he backed up the pronouncement by introducing Final Cut Express HD as well as a new version of iMovie that supports 720p and 1080i high-definition video. The latter is part of the new iLife '05 software bundle. Jobs also noted that QuickTime 7, which will be included with Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger" when the upgrade ships during the first half of 2005, will include the H.264 video codec that is part of the competing high-definition DVD formats, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.
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Amid iPod upgrades, movie deals and Apple TV price cuts, there was a tinge of politics at the Macworld Conference & Expo.
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Science & environment: Apple ditches emblematic look with media player based on the iPhone.
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Apple has begun an effort to convince networks and studios providing it video content to allow it to cut prices in half, meaning most television shows sold through iTunes would retail for 99 cents.
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TWO decades after the battle between VHS and Betamax, the worldâs biggest electronics firms are gearing up for another drawn-out video format war that is likely to confuse consumers and hinder the industryâs transition to next-generation DVDs.