I’m sure that when Apple announced their long-rumored movie rental service, the collars in the Netflix boardroom got a little wet and salty. After all, Apple and iTunes are a force to be reckoned with in the on-demand media world. But the NY Times makes a good point when it suggests that the two services can coexist due to their different aims.
Netflix offers low-cost access to a large variety of movies that excludes new releases – but for $9/month you can watch Terminator, Ghost, Saturday Night Fever, Citizen Kane, and all that good stuff as much as you want. iTunes will be charging half that amount for a single movie, but they’ve got the deals they need to be the first to market with, say, Cloverfield or No Country For Old Men. Sounds like you can safely use both services, and as long as nobody gets ambitious (I’m looking at you, Apple Computer Inc), we can all live in peace.
ITunes Movie Rentals and Netflix Online: Different Markets [New York Times]