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Tuesday, September 12, 2006
I’m loving the latest iPod update (though I was hopping for a 120 GB drive instead of the 80 GB Toshiba, makers of iPods hard drive, we’ve been hearing about) but had to laugh at the $4.99 game option. Now how is it I can get an episode of Lost for $1.99 but a 20 plus year-old game is going to sport a $5 price tag? Steve, come on, man!
Now let’s move over to the Disney side of things and talk about the ridiculous price of new movies. Are we kidding, $14.99? Most DVDs can be had for the same price (sometimes less) that include better resolution, Dolby 5.1 (or higher), extra features, and even different languages. So who is going to pay $15 for a movie…or a two dollar discount for getting it the week of release? Not me. I’ll be hitting Wally-mart or Target, thank you. And once again, no DRM to worry about there.
Oh yes, these high priced feature-less laden movies will also be protected in a way that you can not burn them to DVD, just like Lost and other TV shows at the iTunes Music Store. Hey, this is really looking like a deal now, huh? 
The only thing these movies offer that other services or formats do not is convenience. That’s it. Easy download; easy iPod transfer. Is that worth $15? Not for me.
September 12th, 2006 at 11:35
Games at $4.99 seems perfectly reasonable - the games are fairly simple, but they’re also much less expensive than, say, Gameboy games, and still offer many hours of gameplay. I could see myself playing dozens of hours of Tetris.
September 12th, 2006 at 12:01
I agree with this article. $4.99 for a 20 year old game is way too much as well as the price for a movie. I would MUCH rather buy a DVD for a few bucks more.
If Apple isn’t careful, they may morph into a Verizon type business model.
- Mark
September 12th, 2006 at 12:21
Don’t forget - Apple does not have total power to set the prices, the studios still primarily control that within Apple’s pricing tiers.
As for the games, well $5 is about what shareware Plam games cost so take em or leave em.
-Rob
September 12th, 2006 at 12:25
Maczealots would buy even a turd with the Apple logo.
September 12th, 2006 at 12:31
$15US? Forget it. Near DVD quality? Forget it. Can’t write to DVD? Forget it. Same old crappy sized screen on the iPod? Forget it.
September 12th, 2006 at 15:43
The movies are actually either 9.99 (old) or 12.99 (new if pre-ordered). 14.99 is for those who want to buy new but won’t pre-order. Altho Amazon said their pricing is between 7.99 and 14.99, a perusal of the store shows pricing anywhere from 7.99 to 19.62; and it doesn’t seem to be correlated with whether it’s a new release or not.
The new movies will have simultaneous release with DVDs; that’s actually a “big!” concession from the studios.
And soon it can be viewed on a TV via a wireless connection. So it’s not just on the iPod, and the DVD write becomes less useful.
All in all, it’s a better deal than the others. Could it be better? Yeah it could.
September 12th, 2006 at 16:36
Games for iPods have a bigger problem than a $4.99 pricetag, and that’s a controller blatantly unsuitable for playing games (including games specifically designed for the iPod). I love(d) my iPod nano, but the games on it sucked (not in principle, but in practice).
Actually, I think the one company that “gets” it well enough to dethrone the iPod would be Nintendo (the DS is the only non-Apple portable device that really gives the iPod a run for its money in terms of industrial design), but they’re not interested in turning into a media conglomerate.
As for the cost of movies — Apple has had to compromise with studios. Either they’ll sell a bunch or they won’t. Either studios will do some math and decide they should lower (or raise) prices, or they won’t. Seems to me that the big issue is that only Disney has stepped up so far; I can’t find any movies that I want and don’t have, or I’d buy one and see if it sucks or not.
September 12th, 2006 at 16:41
Never underestimate the willingness of the gullible to pay for convenience. Look at how much money the cell companies rake in by selling ringtones. The success of the iTunes music store itself is based on convenience and the thrill of instant gratification.
Personally I find 128-bit music unacceptable. I don’t waste my time downloading anything under 192-bit even if it’s free.
$10-15 movies aren’t going to make me an iTMS customer either. I can rent for far less and the few movies I actually want to own cost roughly the same for a DVD with bonus features, better quality, etc.
$4.99 for an ancient video game doesn’t seem terrible. After all I’m not going to whip out my PowerBook on the bus, Nintendo and PSP games cost way more and cell phones have a terrible interface for gaming. I’m not interested in handheld gaming but lots of people are.
TV Shows are another matter. NTSC broadcast TV is absolute crap quality and full of ads. Paying $1.99 for a 640×480 commercial-free show that I can watch on an iPod, monitor or large screen TV (via computer) doesn’t seem too bad compared with the monthly cost of cable or satellite plus a PVR for recording and my own time coping with or editing out the commercials.
In the end it doesn’t matter because I’m not in the US and therefore can’t buy any TV or movie content.
September 12th, 2006 at 17:06
Got excited when I saw PacMan was available for my new sprint phone.
Something like $2.99. Per month.
Don’t need it that bad. I would pay $5 to have it permenantly on my ipod.
September 12th, 2006 at 17:11
From what I’ve read the movies DO come in 5.1 Dolby Digital.
September 12th, 2006 at 17:22
Macworld states, “Jobs described the audio quality as “Dolby Surround.”” Additionally, all DVDs are Dolby Digital per the DVD spec; however, not all are 5.1. They are only required to be 2.0 as the iTMS versions most likely are, hence the “Dolby Surround” reference.
September 12th, 2006 at 17:26
“$4.99 for an iPod Game Just Seems Silly as $14.99 iTMS Movies”
Yeah, about as silly as a $2.00-bottle of soda!
September 12th, 2006 at 18:32
Remember the “old” games are new programs for the iPod’s limited chip resources and input options. Apple and the associated software owner’s did the work for them. With ring tones’ prices I don’t think they’re unreasonable. I look for some Bit Torrent style downloading in Leopard with credits to volunteers to lessen the load on Apple’s server farms. Until ISPs can provide the bandwidth high quality video downloads will be limited.
September 12th, 2006 at 19:35
5 bucks for the game seems reasonable. Afterall, somebody actually had to port it over. The movie price, however is silly. Apple should have opted for an online rental model for the movies.
September 12th, 2006 at 20:42
AAC is capable of doing 5.1 discreet audio… hopefully this will be the case…. I’m researching this a bit more.
September 15th, 2006 at 21:28
$15 for a dvd + gas to get to the store and back + tax = $18.50. Not saying that the iTMS movies are worth it, but I generally don’t buy dvd’s either. Tonight’s rental? 6 titles for $5.25 (and 1/3 as much gas because I don’t have to go more than a mile), keeping the movies for 5 days. I’d say that’s the winner!
September 19th, 2006 at 11:43
kudos to Mark and David for their comments
my 2 cents, I love the idea of being able to download a movie but would much rather have an “On Demand” rent download… like Comcast offers for their On Demand movies (ability to get instant download, fast forward, rewind, pause, etc). I don’t have cable or TV service (too much junk to even try to filter, plus a HUGE time waster), but when I forgot to fill my Netflix que, haven’t sent back my Netflix DVD, or am waiting for my 1 Netflix DVD to come in (can you tell I’m on the cheap 1 out at a time plan!?), it’d be nice to just log on and download a flick for a single viewing. It’s only a matter of time before that is the norm - I expect Netflix to be the big player in this space too (Blockwho!? Yeah, they just closed down their store closest to me, looking forward to when Hollywood Trash nearby shuts down too!)