(c) Apple Computer

Let’s have a look at the summary of MWSF and decipher the recent announcements. All details are accessible on the Apple website.

- Rental Movies
This is maybe the biggest news. After releasing music and video stores, Apple successfully releases the movie rental on iTunes Store.
Many companies tried to adopt an audio renting system for the online market. All of them failed for one reason: consumers want to own their music. They want to be able to listen multiple times to a song/album, artist and do not want to be hindered by the DRM restrictions. However, this model does not applyt ot Movies. Consumers are less willing to watch movie a couple of times. The renting model, as proven by the multiple rental video store has proven to be successfull.

Movies will be available in different formats (news and back catalogs, HD and non HD). You will be able to download a movie, watch it on a computer and upload it into your iPod. GREAT! As you can expect, and unfortunately, it will only be available in the US to start.

The next step the industry should be working on should be to ensure that you can BUY one movie and play it wherever you want. I buy a BRD, HD-DVD, it should come automatically with the DVD version, the iPod version, the .wmv version and the PSP version…. Consumers owns the movie not the format. Imagine if you are asked to buy one car for the highway, one for the town, one for the holidays… No, you buy and own the content, so there should be an easy access to the same file of different formats.

Let’s wait and see how this movie rental store will be implemented, how it will be easy to use, and when it will be available in the rest of the world!

- New MacBook Air
We’ve already covered it. In summary – an ultra thin laptop, ultra light, touch mouse pad, great design, comes at a performance reduction price. Still have not decided to get one for myself or not. Main issue will be the management of the entire media library / overall performance if you are a heavy music/photos user like me.

- Time Capsule
Imagine an AirPort Base station with an HDD included, this is Time Capsule. This product has been designed to allow laptop users to backup their Hard Disk using WiFi. The current Time Machine software is mainly designed to be used with an USB / Firewire connection to a direct Hard Disk. Any connection through WiFi or Ethernet will drastically slow down performances. Wait and see when we can try it.

- Apple TV Upgrade
I was amazed to hear Steve Jobs admitting that they had failed with the first Apple TV. He is right. This first product did not make sense to me. Why would you buy a bigger iPod that syncs with your PC/Mac and put it under your TV?
The new Apple TV is able to sync directly with your computer, AND can directly access the iTunes and of course new rental store. Wait and see whether the ease of use is present and if our internet speed allows us to watch TV properly from the Apple TV box.

- iPhone Upgrade
New features proposed, great. Free downloads with GSM + WiFi triangulation, which helps to locate the next store or shop on your iPhone, cool.

- iPod Touch Upgrade
New features proposed, great, BUT this upgrade comes at a $20 price tag!!! This is really not understandable – why would a consumer have to pay for an update on his iPod Touch? Despite the cool new features, I am not too comfortable with this option.