OPINION
I don't particularly like the fact that Apple has killed TV show rentals. But I think I can at least understand why it did it. Apple says it was all about popularity, and TV networks may have played a role behind the scenes, but really the elimination of rentals is just part of a broader plan that will simplify media consumption and free us from having to constantly act as our own data micromanagers.
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My unhappiness with Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) decision to cancel iTunes TV show rentals for 99 US cents led me to get a glimpse of Apple's new iCloud-related world. As it was widely reported, Apple decided to ditch the rental program because consumers overwhelmingly prefer to buy their TV shows.
I don't have the data in front of me, the hard numbers that Apple has showing how many TV shows customers were renting vs. how many shows they were buying. But I can't say I believe Apple on this one.If Apple showed a pie graph with tiny slice of rental pie, OK, I would take them at their word. But I think two other factors are at play that are much more telling.
First, I don't think the major television networks were ever all that pleased with the Apple iTunes TV show rental program. Basically, I could rent an HD TV show for one-third of the cost to buy the HD version outright at $2.99. So I could watch a great season finale twice, for example, and still come out ahead as a consumer with a big-screen TV in my living room.
And I did.
But Back to the Other Reason Apple Canceled TV Rentals
Regardless of whether or not the economics of Apple and the TV networks were a factor, I think Apple's iCloud direction is a much bigger factor.When iCloud launches, consumers will be able to download and essentially stream their purchased content from iCloud to all of their Apple and iOS devices, like iPhones and iPads. And if you buy something from one device, it will automatically download to another device over WiFi. For e-books, for example, this would be pretty handy because I might buy an e-book from my iPhone ... and then want to read it later on my iPad. Having it automatically be ready for me is a fantastic consumer-friendly feature.
The same goes for music. Buying something on my iPhone and needing to sync with my MacBook and then get my iPad to my MacBook to sync yet again is all a big pain in the butt. It's not always that much of a pain, of course; for example, if I buy an app on my iPhone all I have to do is find the app on the App Store through my iPad and then I can install it, usually for free if it's an app that supports both the iPhone and iPad.
iCloud, though, seeks to erase these distinctions and make content consumption easy for everyday consumers. If you buy, whatever you bought will be just there for you, easy for you to consume in the Apple universe.
A Glimpse of iCloud Power Today
When I first heard about iCloud, I can't say that I was overly excited, partly because its actual launch date was so far out. It was also partially because I wasn't sure some of the features were particularly compelling. But now that Apple killed iTunes TV show rentals, I noticed a cool new feature that became available in the most recent Apple TV update: streaming TV shows.Basically, any TV show that you bought through iTunes is now available for instant streaming directly from your Apple TV. Your iTunes account knows your purchase history, and consequently it lets you access the TV show again and again. It's pretty easy to use, and it's awesome. On my Apple TV, I now have access to TV shows that I forgot I ever purchased, even ones that I purchased years ago and subsequently deleted to save hard drive space.
Which brings up another key reason I'm starting to get amped up about iCloud: hard drive storage space. The MacBook Air, for example, just isn't a computer I can buy yet. The reason: The lack of available SSD-based hard drive space -- or rather, the steep cost for enough to keep me happy. To get just 256 GB of SSD space in the 13-inch MacBook Air, it'll cost me $1,600. If I upgraded to a third-party SSD option, it would still cost quite a bit.
The answer: Offload all my space-hungry movies and TV shows and photos to a back-up desktop hard drive, and if I'm lucky, maybe to a wicked-fast Thunderbolt RAID drive. While prices will inevitably come down on Thunderbolt options, using a desktop storage solution to hold my everyday content is not a tidy solution at all.
There's also the option for network-attached storage, too, but that's not particularly tidy either.
No, I very much prefer to have a large hard drive capable of holding all my movies, TV shows, home video, photos and music. Why? Instant and easy access, no matter where I'm located. If I travel for business or pleasure, I hate to leave something behind.
Irrational? You bet. But I'm a consumer, and I don't think anyone has ever accused consumers of being rational.
When it comes to the Apple universe, what's this mean? Take the new Apple TV, which doesn't have an on-board hard drive like the first-generation Apple TV. If you don't have an iTunes-running computer on your WiFi network, your second-generation Apple TV can't stream content from your Mac or PC. In a world where most computers being purchased are laptops, that model sucks! If I take my MacBook to a local coffee shop, no one in my household can access the movies that are on my MacBook. It's worse if a guy leaves for a week-long business trip.
So does a household have to have a Mac mini or iMac then, simply to stay at home all the time and be the central repository for content? Kind of. But that's not efficient either, nor is it particularly tidy. The last thing I have time for is managing a bunch of content, moving it around, making sure my Mac and PCs are authorized, etc.
By offering major types of content through an iTunes-account centered streaming model, and by extension an iCloud model, guys like me no longer have to pack around superfluous gigabytes of data. Just a few hours ago, I was deleting old TV shows to make space on a MacBook hard drive in order to back it up on a slightly smaller external hard drive before upgrading it to Lion. Odds are, most of those TV shows I'll never watch again, but I'll tell you, it was somewhat comforting knowing that I didn't have to track down another hard drive to save them to ... or trash them forever. Apple was keeping my purchase history available to me via my Apple TV, and in the future, via iCloud and my iOS devices.
Maybe a MacBook Air Is in My Future
So, what have I learned? First, by allowing people to rent TV shows via iTunes and their Apple TV, Apple ends up with a very confusing delivery model for consumers -- too many choices. I could rent a show and have access to it after I start watching it for 48 hours, but then it's gone forever ... or I can buy it once and have access to it forever, even if I delete it. Now how do you make that clear in a simply "buy now" interface? Not too hard. But how might that work with iCloud? With multiple devices? It just doesn't. The renting model never did work well between multiple devices because the DRM issues had to be satisfied -- a time-wasting pain.So for the sake of clarity and easy portability, Apple is reducing a pricing option to make the overall experience better. I get that. I won't always like it, but I understand the basic premise.
Second, I'm learning that maybe I don't have to be so married to a large hard drive in the near future. If all my content purchases could be stored on Apple's servers in the sky, I don't have to worry about keeping that massive 3.35 GB HD version of the Pixar (Nasdaq: PIXR) movie "Up" on my MacBook hard drive. Right now, of course, Apple is only providing this sort of option for TV shows, not for purchased movies. I'm not sure why, but I'm guessing it has something to do with digital rights management and movie studios. Still, I'm hoping that iTunes-purchased movie iCloud storage will be a surprise announcement this fall.
All in all, this means that not only would I get super-easy access to all my cool media content on all my iOS and Mac devices, but I might also be able to enjoy a reasonably priced (and fast) SSD drive in a MacBook Air or even MacBook Pro.
Of course, none of this helps me with my 75 GB and growing iPhoto library -- but that's a personal problem, you might say.
MacNewsWorld columnist Chris Maxcer has been writing about the tech industry since the birth of the email newsletter, and he still remembers the clacking Mac keyboards from high school -- Apple's seed-planting strategy at work. While he enjoys elegant gear and sublime tech, there's something to be said for turning it all off -- or most of it -- to go outside. To catch him, take a "firstnamelastname" guess at Gmail.com.
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