Getting the Jobs Done at iTunes
By Andrew Wallenstein
There's a flurry of announcements coming out of Macworld today, but none more than astounding than the full range of movie studios that signed on to adopt a rental model. We knew 20th Century Fox was coming down the pike, but there was no indication that everyone else was jumping on the bandwagon, too--there could be no bigger vote of confidence for the new service. Apple chief Steve Jobs disclosed that 7 million movies have been sold to date, but you've got to wonder how quickly Apple will exceed that total on the rental side of the business, which is more appealing given the lower $3.99 fee for new releases.
We've knocked Jobs around a bit for his handling of the NBC Universal controversy, but the participation he is getting from Hollywood this go-round restores any faith Apple may have lost in recent months.
