Will iTunes Movie Rentals be Disruptive? The potential is there!

Michael Gartenberg | January 15, 2008, 04:25 PM

David Card disagrees with me about the iTunes rental model being potentially disruptive. Not sure why though. I'm sure we'll have more to say about this over time once the full experience get tested out. I'm back off to NY in a few minutes so just a few points.

1. 1,000 titles is just a start. Don't look at the initial count, look at the content partners. Dismissing this is like dismissing iTunes when it launched as it had only 200,00 songs. Oh wait, some folks did just that.

2. Apple is feeding the TV (along with the PC and iPod and iPhone). Quality on the TV is DVD quality or HiDef for a buck more. No issues there.

3. Release windows aren't great but is that really the issue?

4. Home network is still the weak link but that's the reason Apple is taking ownership of the experience.

This isn't going to change the market tomorrow or the next day and Netflix will still ship lots of shiny disks for a while. This is about the future and providing the eco system that consumers want and the technology to make it happen. Short terms losers are likely competitors like Vudu and things like the Netflix streaming service. Will also put pressure on the Xbox eco system to get content off the box to other devices. Like iTunes Music Store, the world won't change overnight but today's news is super important and potentially disruptive.

Back in 2001 the big battle for the heir to the CD was DVD-Audio vs. SACD. The winner was the mp3 format and the iPod. Makes you wonder if in the battle between HD-DVD and Blue Ray, the winner on end will be plain old DVDs and on the other… Apple.