With news of the impending release of iTunes movie bundles, we’ve got to thinking about how Apple’s online entertainment emporium needs to change in order to maintain top spot as the ultimate place to go for movie downloads, rentals and music. Make a Christmas wish and pray that these fixes become reality in 2010.
Add movie and TV series bundles
This morning’s news of iTunes movie bundles has been a long time coming. Why buy a movie that costs £10.99 on iTunes when you can grab the equivalent DVD for less than a fiver? The double feature price of £6.99 looks like a winner. TV fanatics had better hope Apple matches box set prices too.
Fix iTunes 9 syncing issues
Apple has said it’s investigating the raft of complaints its had regarding iTunes 9′s failure to play nice with the iPod classic and iPod nano. It’s a fix that’s needed sharpish if it doesn’t want to lose thousands of valuable customers and have its iTunes brand compromised.
Launch the Lala backed iTunes streaming service
The acquisition of Lala by Apple points to a not-too-distant launch of an iTunes streaming service, built using the same ideas behind the Spotify rival. Deals need to be done, but the skills of Lala staff should mean iTunes streaming moves from pipe dream to reality in 2010.
Cut prices
iTunes is still far too pricey. Movie bundles might go some way to fixing this, but the likes of Tunechecker are only going to show Apple up is being the most expensive of an increasingly competitive bunch. A five pound album deal, a la 7Digital, wouldn’t go amiss and would surely drive sales up.
Open up to rival phones and MP3 players
iTunes’ battle with Palm has verged on the petty in 2009. So rather than just getting the Palm Pre working with the jukebox software, how about letting proper syncing with Symbian phones, BlackBerrys, even Android. Imagine how easier it would make getting tracks on your phone, not to mention how much cash Apple would rake in.
