You know, I was just wishing for iTunes movies a couple weeks ago, on the way back from my most recent UK trip. The article talks about potential competition from Amazon Unbox, but it only runs on Windows XP, and doesn’t seem to offer any options for carrying movies over to a portable device. Not very interesting.
I rip my own DVDs for traveling entertainment. At least, I do when I plan in advance enough to buy new ones, and am patient enough to sit through the hours of maxing out my laptop while it crunches through the video. Okay, I’m often not patient enough and just read a book because it’s less hassle. So there’s a significant convenience factor to iTunes movies.
Of course, iTunes doesn’t have any movies I actually want to buy, either because I’ve seen them, or because they’re the kind of movie I might want to rent, but don’t want to own. (Though, I give them geek-cred for having “Death Race 2000”.) Their offerings will probably get better over time, as their TV shows have.
Oh, and their “30 minute movie download” estimate is way off. It’s more like 6 hours on my DSL line. Maybe it’s an estimate for a cable modem or fiber-optic connection.