2008 Woodie Awards
Apple vs Wal-Mart
Hannah Nelson, Collegian columnist
Issue date: 5/9/08 Section: Editorial / Opinion
The joke about Wal-Mart taking over the world has been in circulation for a while, but there's a chance that iconic yellow smiley face had better watch his back before a Macintosh Apple takes a bite out of his roll-back.
iTunes could be trumping the new generation of DVDs before they even got the chance for their 15 minutes of fame. Apple already has contracts with the majority of big movie studios, and has just recently won deals with many of those studios to start putting movies up on iTunes the same day as the DVD release date.
This is expected to take a good-sized chunk out of the DVD industry, and is coming on the tail end of a tooth and nail Blu-ray versus high definition DVD war. Apple could be the new tortoise in the race.
iTunes has become infamous among music stores for killing CD sales, and DVD producers must have that in the back of their minds with the revelation of synonymous release dates.
New movie releases appearing in the iTunes store on the same day as they are released on DVD adds to the growing advertisement scheme of skipping the video store for convenience. It's a scheme similar to methods used by On Demand and NetFlix.
New releases sold on iTunes will be sold for $14.99, several dollars less than most in-store prices for traditional DVDs (presumably a packaging and materials matter). Preexisting movies will remain at $9.99. New release Blu-ray discs are currently selling for double and triple the iTunes price.
This is a sign of Apple's buying power. They have won over a number of heavy hitting studios such as Warner Brothers and Disney, both of which have been and will be releasing Blu-ray DVDs at a rapid pace.
This raises the question of whether or not high definition televisions and DVDs will be history even before they got their chance in the limelight. It's true that many channels are now broadcasting in high definition, but movie sales were already fighting rampant piracy. If legal online availability of movies becomes more widely spread and popular, it could mean more than just sales trouble for the DVD era.
iTunes could be trumping the new generation of DVDs before they even got the chance for their 15 minutes of fame. Apple already has contracts with the majority of big movie studios, and has just recently won deals with many of those studios to start putting movies up on iTunes the same day as the DVD release date.
This is expected to take a good-sized chunk out of the DVD industry, and is coming on the tail end of a tooth and nail Blu-ray versus high definition DVD war. Apple could be the new tortoise in the race.
iTunes has become infamous among music stores for killing CD sales, and DVD producers must have that in the back of their minds with the revelation of synonymous release dates.
New movie releases appearing in the iTunes store on the same day as they are released on DVD adds to the growing advertisement scheme of skipping the video store for convenience. It's a scheme similar to methods used by On Demand and NetFlix.
New releases sold on iTunes will be sold for $14.99, several dollars less than most in-store prices for traditional DVDs (presumably a packaging and materials matter). Preexisting movies will remain at $9.99. New release Blu-ray discs are currently selling for double and triple the iTunes price.
This is a sign of Apple's buying power. They have won over a number of heavy hitting studios such as Warner Brothers and Disney, both of which have been and will be releasing Blu-ray DVDs at a rapid pace.
This raises the question of whether or not high definition televisions and DVDs will be history even before they got their chance in the limelight. It's true that many channels are now broadcasting in high definition, but movie sales were already fighting rampant piracy. If legal online availability of movies becomes more widely spread and popular, it could mean more than just sales trouble for the DVD era.
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Christopher Michael Nice
posted 5/09/08 @ 8:26 PM EST
Towards the end of the first page of this editorial it was said "This raises the question of whether or not high definition televisions and DVDs will be history even before they got their chance in the limelight. (Continued…)
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