before this week mail order movie rental serviceNetflixintroduced a unexampled service that enables computer users to stream film forthwith to their screen background . The company state it ’s a completing help to Apple ’s iTunes Store , not a competitor .
“ You used to purchase TV contentedness by watch ad - stand content on TV , then you ’d go down to the storehouse and buy a telecasting or pull it . That model has been adopted to digital distribution , ” explained Steve Swayse , Netflix ’s director of corporate communication .
“ Services like YouTube and Google Video filling that ad - support mental object role now , ” he toldMacworld . “ Apple and Amazon.com are offering a ‘ download to own ’ model that ’s not unlike buying a video from the store . And Netflix is institute exigent online viewing to the motion picture rental concern . ”
completing or competition ?
While Netflix sees the iTunes Store as a complementary inspection and repair , Inside Digital Media senior analyst Phil Leigh conceive it ’s only a matter of time before Apple becomes a direct competitor .
“ It make all the sense in the man for that type of consumer note value proposition and it would be jerky for Apple to avert it , ” aver Leigh . “ I do n’t bonk why they ’re so adamantly opposed to the idea of renting moving picture . ”
Leigh suggests that without a streaming DRM applied science such as Netflix ’s will be close out from being see on Apple TV , Apple ’s coming twist to enable telecasting to stream from a computing machine to a big - projection screen TV .
“ If consumer receive that the Apple TV is the way they want to get video from computer to video , Apple may use a digital right direction technology that none of the other company will be licensed to use , the same mode that the iPod is now the ostiary for DRM - protected music sold from the iTunes Store , ” Leigh explicate .
While the download - to - own philosophy works well with music because consumers listen to the same audio tracks over and over again , the same does n’t hold true for movies , say Leigh .
“ I tend to think that Apple has to disclose down on that because movies as a rental format make a tidy sum more horse sense , ” he articulate .
How it function
Netflix enable movie enthusiasts to rent film on videodisc through the U.S. Postal Service , maintaining a waiting line of picture for bank check - out on the company ’s Web site . You ’re not restrict by due dates or shipping fees ; the service offer scaling pace depending on how many movies you require to take out at once .
Keeping the door open
“ Our finish is to be the go - to station for movies no matter what program you prefer , ” say Swayse , who end unawares of say that Netflix would emphatically sustain the Mac with a Mac OS X - aboriginal applied science .
The quality of the video will vary depending on the downstream bandwidth of the drug user . exploiter with the power to nourish 3 Mbit per second connection will be able to watch out DVD - quality video recording , according to Netflix .
IDGNS ’s Steven Schwankert contributed information used in this report .
