iLounge

By Jeremy Horwitz

Editor-in-Chief, iLounge
Published: Monday, April 14, 2008
News Category: iTunes, Apple TV

If the latest summary pages generated by the iTunes Store and Apple TV can be believed, Apple has reached its previously stated goal of offering 100 “high definition video[s] with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound” for rent, yet still lags considerably behind its promised 1,000 standard-definition rentals—numbers originally promised by the end of February, but missed by wide margins. A count this afternoon of titles listed in Apple TV’s “All HD” section showed that the company is currently offering 197 high-definition movie rentals through Apple TV, with 100 of those rentals including Dolby Digital sound, and the remaining 97 offering only stereo sound. Notably, one of the Dolby Digital rentals—American Gangster—is available in two versions, making the company technically just shy of the 100 mark, assuming that its All HD tally is comprehensive.

By comparison, the iTunes Store’s standard-definition rental number remains markedly below 1,000, though searches of the Store’s catalog yield different totals. While the store’s All Rentals section shows a total of 390 standard-definition movies currently available for rent, up only modestly from the 384 offered in early March, a Power Search of the store suggests that 604 movie rentals are currently available; the difference appears to be attributable to the “All Rentals” section excluding movies that are available for both rental and purchase. It is unclear whether Apple is still attempting to ramp up numerically to compete with Amazon’s Unbox and Netflix’s Instant Watching movie rental service, which already offer thousands of titles.