Netflix vs. Apple iTunes Movie Rental
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There has been a long running divide in the world of computing as people typically align themselves with either Microsoft or Apple and it is is somewhat rare to see someone advocating both sides.
Now that divide might be moving into the entertainment industry.
Steve Jobs is kicking off the Macworld Expo with a variety of announcements, including the launch of a new movie rental service that will serve as a complement to the sales of movies and television programs currently available on iTunes.
The new movie rental service with iTunes will feature titles from all major studios, with new movies being made available 30 days after their DVD release. Users will have the option to view movies on their computer as well as their iPod or iPhone.
Once a movie is purchased, users will have 30 days to begin watching the movie and 24 hours after that to complete the movie. The price points for the iTunes service will be $3.99 for new releases and $2.99 for older titles.
What does this mean for Netflix.com?
Clearly the rumors of the iTunes movie rental service were not lost on the executives at Netflix.com, as they recently made a preemptive announcement regarding their online service.
Netflix.com just recently altered their “Watch Instantly” service to remove the hourly limit placed on how long customers could watch in a month.
The Netflix.com service will likely receive an additional boost in popularity later this year when LG releases the Netflix-ready set-top-box that allows members to stream movies to their TV as opposed to the PC.
So which service is best?
The answer to which service is best will likely lie with your viewing habits.
If you absolutely must have your movies available on-the-go for the commute to work or an upcoming flight, you will likely want to explore the iTunes movie rental service. The largest drawback to the Netflix.com service is the requirement that you stream the movie to your computer without any option to download the movie, burn it to a DVD, or copy it to your iPod/iPhone.
For the crowd that prefers value and flexibility over mobile movie viewing, you will likely want to give Netflix.com a try as the pricing is much more reasonable. With Netflix.com you can get two movies per month and two hours of online streaming for only one dollar more than a single online rental at iTunes.
As someone that finds myself on the Windows PC side of the computing divide, Netflix.com is the clear cut winner - although it is more because we don’t watch movies on-the-go and prefer to watch on the television as opposed to the computer. Netflix.com provides us with that flexibility and is more economical.
Which service do you think is more attractive?
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Tried to leave a traceback, not sure that SquareSpace sends tracebacks properly, so my response is at http://www.acuminate.net/blog/2008/1/16/apple-itunes-movies.html It is rather long.
Scott, thanks for the heads up. It looks like the trackback got caught as spam. Thanks for following up with a comment to mention your post.
I purchased an apple tv a while ago after hearing that the hardware profile would support more than the software does. That spelled “future kick-butt updates” to me.
I haven’t been let down. Although they haven’t put the software update out yet (or there’s some other reason mine isn’t reflecting the rental feature), I’m biting at the bit to use it and drop Netflix.
Why? Because I despise waiting for the cd’s in the mail and having a limited selection of old-hat movies I can download.
My feel is that the one thing that might make me stay w/ netflix instead is the selection of movies. But let’s face it, movies have gone downhill these days, so the real mover to me is still convenience.
I would like to know more about which service has/will have more rental selections. I know netflix has a subset of their entire library and Apple doesn’t have every movie out there. Perhaps you can compare selections in a followup article? Please!