Apple Dominates Online Movie Sales, Walmart Is Catching Up

This past year we've seen the online space for filmed entertainment grow leaps and bounds with the further entrenchment of Netflix. It seems like all televisions and entertainment devices have either Netflix or some other connected provider for movies.

In terms of the online sales of movies, Apple currently is dominating the space with 64.5% of total consumer spending on online movies in 2010 according to a report conducted by IHS Screen digest. This figure is down from 74.4% in 2009. In second place, Microsoft is commanding a 17.9% cut of the market, which is up from 11.6% in 2009. Sony placed third with 7.2%, which shows they increased their share from 5.7% in 2009. Remaining competitors in the online movie sales space saw their growth increase from 8.3% in 2009 to 10.4% in 2010.

When looking at the figures, it is evident that the overall online movie market grew, so Apple earned more revenue with online movies in 2010 than it did the previous year, although it lost almost 10% in market share.

One of the biggest competitors to Apple is one that isn't even in the top three yet... Walmart. Industry insiders are predicting that if Walmart (following their purchase of online movie service Vudu) continues its momentum, it will soon be a major player in the online movie market. Walmart's momentum has been helped by the inclusion of the Vudu service in several Blu-Ray DVD players, game systems like the Sony PS3, and various set top boxes.

We'll have to keep our eyes peeled to see who gets the majority of our online movie funds this year. The physical DVD market continues to decline, while the online space continues to grow. As our habits continue to evolve, I hope that services continue to give us more of what we are looking for... current titles, back catalog, and high quality picture and audio.

What do you think about the available online movie services? Have you tried them, and if so, which one is your favorite? Please leave a comment below!

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Will ISP Caps And Charges Conquer Netflix?

I love Netflix. other than DVR technology, no single service has changed how I consume video content. The capability to view movies and television shows on demand on many devices for one low monthly price is extremely useful and cost-effective.

In the last couple of years, Netflix has made a major push towards having its platform available on multiple devices including televisions, game systems, set-top boxes, and mobile phones. Along with inroads from other services such as Hulu, this effort has increased the popularity of streaming video content over the internet.

Netflix has consistently adding movies and television series to its streaming service. The only complaint I have is that there are many movies currently released on DVD that are not yet present. I realize that the entertainment industry is very strict with their release windows and that someday this issue may be resolved. I have found myself watching a lot of quality films that I hadn't heard of. Foreign thrillers are one of my new favorite film genres. There are a lot of great documentaries as well that I have watched.

Due to the nature of internet video streaming, consumers are generating much more demand on the connections of their Internet Service Providers (ISP's.) Due to this increase in traffic, there has been a lot of chatter about ISP's enforcing capacity ceilings on the amount of data consumers can use each month. There has also been discussion about implementing structures that charge consumers per gigabyte of usage. Potentially, those that utilize services like Netflix streaming could see higher internet bills than those that do not use the service.

In a letter (PDF) that Netflix distributed on January 26, 2011 to its shareholders along with its latest financial report, they claim that an obstacle to the success of their company is the potential "move by wires ISP's to shift consumers to pay-per-gigabyte models instead of the current unlimited up-to-a-large-cap approach." Netflix asserts that they hope that ISP's do not take that route, and will continue to promote the continuation of the unlimited-up-to-a-large-cap model. They further assert that wired ISP's costs to deliver one hour of viewing over their network costs them less than a penny, and that price is falling. This clearly says that the ISP's motive for pricing with a per-gigabyte model is economically unnecessary.

Personally, I don't want my ISP to charge me more than they already do. Leave my ability to enjoy Netflix alone!

What do you think about ISP's going to a per-gigabyte pricing model? Do you think it's fair? Do the ISP's make enough money as it is?  Are you a Netflix customer? Please leave your comments below! I'd love to hear from you.