iTunes with Podcasting, Cell Phones and iTunes Movies?

Looks like typical Apple behavior to me - setting things up for the implementation of future plans. I support Podcasts and would like them in iTunes. The other things (iTunes cell phone and videos in the store) I would not use.

I couldn't care less for Podcasts.

Music videos in iTunes is not very interesting as long as the audio isn't streamed over AirPort (with all the problems of delaying the images that would involve).

My views on full length movies can be found in the [post=1476007]poll thread[post].

But cell phones might be interesting. But I really want an Apple cellphone, not just an iTunes enabled Motorola (or others). I'd buy a nice Apple branded cellphone that synced flawlessly (over Bluetooth and/or USB) with iCal, Address Book and maybe even Mail that could play iTunes purchased music as ringtones (which is funny for a very short time, but still...) in a second.

"I'm going to have to leave that answer to our actions in the future."

At any rate, you'd have to be crazy not to believe that they're working to make it happen as soon as possible. You'd have to think there would be a huge advantage for the first big player to offer comprehensive movie downloads.

This is good news. I feel like Steve spilled the beans. ;)

"Apple's never been very good at going through corporate orifices in order to get at the end users."

What's he referring to there? (historically, I mean)

"I'm going to have to leave that answer to our actions in the future."

Damnit steve, couldn't you give a straight answer for once?! :rolleyes:

so we should expet the ipod movie soon?

Finally, with the recent introduction of music video sales on the iTunes Music Store, Jobs fielded questions about whether or not movies might eventually be on sale. Jobs reportedly answered: "I'm going to have to leave that answer to our actions in the future."

We know what this means. Recently Steve didn't even consider selling movies. This was clearly implied when Steve decided to not have an iVideo or iPod Video (or whatever Apple will call it) in the near future about a year ago. Expect movies on iTunes alongside an iVid -- soon!


The problems with Apple selling movies are:

- Where is the iVid? Will it come at WWDC?

- Also; are people willing to spend $10 per video as much as they are .99 cents per song? Ten times more is quite a bit. My guess is that many people who buy music from iTunes will still pirate movies.

- Are Apple's iTunes servers ready for selling long movies? Apple only lets you download your iTunes songs once and the videos they sell now are short in length. Movies are gigs in file size where songs are only in megs.

- People with 56k and other types of slow internet connections will not be to download movies.


If Apple can work out these kinks then they will be in good shape. Here are some solutions:

- H.264 makes the downloading server's speed easier to solve because the files are smaller.

- Slow internet connection users can download H.264 4 times faster than normal video codec.

- Pirates will pay just to get the video 4 times faster.

In other words... H.264 is more than just for movie trailers apparently :-).

We're still talking about HUGE movies to have to download though. That would be a big strain on Apple's servers. 9.99 for an album of less than 50 MB is one thing. Lets say Apple prices one movie at 9.99 (which would make sense). That would be 9.99 for probably close to 1 GB of information. And the music store already hardly makes a profit! Even if they price it at 14.99, I don't see how it can make business sense.

Podcasting:

I'm glad Apple is getting on board -- not because I like Podcasting but because I DON'T like it. The interfaces are clunky, the content is blah and the whole experience is very high maintenance.

Apple podcasting could be: NPR's "Morning Edition" synced every morning for $5 a month, Letterman's top 10 list, a weekly comedy broadcast by David Sedaris, etc. Apple will be able to fully intergrate it into iTunes and do it with great content.

Music videos:

I'm scratching my head at this one. Apple lets you watch music videos for FREE right now on iTMS. (You can also watch music videos FREE on MTV, VHI, BET, etc.) If this doesn't port to the iPod, Apple will just expect consumers to pay for something they already get for free.

This doesn't make any sense unless the iPod or a new handheld video player is involved.

In other words... H.264 is more than just for movie trailers apparently :-).

We're still talking about HUGE movies to have to download though. That would be a big strain on Apple's servers. 9.99 for an album of less than 50 MB is one thing. Lets say Apple prices one movie at 9.99 (which would make sense). That would be 9.99 for probably close to 1 GB of information. And the music store already hardly makes a profit! Even if they price it at 14.99, I don't see how it can make business sense.

My thoughts exactly. ;) Maybe they'll use bit torrent so they won't have to use their servers as much (just kidding). Maybe all their profit will come from their iVid and they'll lose a little money in their video store.