Oh come on.. people have been attacking NBC left and right and trumpeting how virtuous apple is. I'm not even saying apple is bad. I'm just saying they are not in the right and you know what?.. apple fans need to be told sometimes that they are full of shit. Why should i sugarcoat it?.
There's "sugar coating" a message, and then there's pouring kerosene all over the message, setting it on fire, and leaving it on someone's doorstep. Just saying.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wnurse
Think about it.. how can $1.99 videos favor NBC?.. people say that NBC makes more money at $1.99 but these people are not economists.
Apple actually makes this argument to the studios. They say that, given the lack of shipping and packaging costs, there are vast optimization costs to be passed on to customers. The $1.99 price was not reached randomly you realize. Apple's stance is that raising prices past $1.99 would sour demand by causing customers to question whether they will purchase something more than they would if the price was uniform.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wnurse
Actually, NBC is right. there is no way on earth the price point of a old video is the same as a new and hot video so apple is incorrect in thinking all videos are worth $1.99
Ah, hah... but you just slipped there. You're saying that "videos are videos". Apple understands that new movies are worth more than old movies or "library" or "catalog" items. Apple allows for $12.95-$14.99 pricing on new videos, and $9.99 on old videos. Television shows have no correlation. when it comes to "episodes" of TV shows or "tracks" of music, Apple has noted that uniformity on pricing removes complexity for customers. It's like walking into a convenience store and seeing three candy bars of the same volume. One candybar is 75 cents, the other is $2.50 and the other is 25 cents. This is flatly stupid and on such items, customers would likely make less purchases, due to all the excess pricing consideration being made on such small amounts of money. Really, its just stupid.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wnurse
but apple is framing the argument in a way to galvanize their fans. Greedy NBC wants your money!!!.. while ignoring the fact that their pricing strategy flies in the face of economics.
Don't be silly. Nothing Apple is doing "flies in the face" of anything. Many stores employ similar notions of standardization, wherever they want customers to make purchases of small amounts. Unlike iTunes however, most brick and mortar stores need to deal with other issues like generating foot traffic (Apple uses podcasts and giveaways), and shelf space. In that digital media is a different animal, and anyone who thinks its all the same needs a dopeslap. Originally, the music industry tried services like "PressPlay" and really wanted to encourage the "subscription" and "streaming" model for music on the Internet. This failed, and continues to fail.
With more sophisticaed DRM, iTunes allowed the purchase model to be implemented, where people felt they could "own" their music. Applying this to the video market, its much the same. There is NO material cost, and so it becomes feasible to sell productions episode to episode. Sometimes this comes out to less than the corresponding DVD compilation of a season/collection, other times it comes out to substantially more (usually on older works).
Quote:
Originally Posted by wnurse
think of gas.. gas prices rise but people still buy gas.. while some of that behavior is due to the fact people have to actually travel.. they don't curtail their travel.
Um, let's... let's not. Dude, you are not SERIOUSLY comparing a digital tv show file to a fossil fuel...? Are you? Such a comparison seems to display a deep deep misunderstanding, that perhaps NBC is also engaging in. Let me clue you in. Distribution pricing on the Internet is PLUNGING. Plunging. Going down, down, down, down. Downloading 2 GB of data cost substantially MORE 5 years ago than it does now, and it continues to go down. High prices on CDs have been souring people from spending for many years. This is a fact, even though production costs have been dropping substantially.
Let's take a real example. For a long time, audio cassettes have competed with CDs. When they first came out, the CD version was more expensive than the audio cassette version of a production. For instance, I purchased the Harry Potter series on audio cassette back at the start. As the years went by, I noticed that the CDs always cost much more, until this year, when the audio cassette version was finally met by the price of the CD version. Humorously, I believe the original price of the CDs was around $75, but now while the retail price is still roughly the same, the selling price is substantially less (around $45-$55 pretty much everywhere, in spite of the MSRP). This is clear evidence of an inflated cost that has more to do with other factors. Meanwhile the REAL price has gone down, to reflect cost and consumer demand. It's this type of politicing that's detrimental and illusive for consumers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wnurse
I can assure you that even if NBC were to lose some people by raising the prices of their video (you perhaps), they would more than make up for it in extra revenue (if they did their studies right and have identified the correct price point).
No. Let's try that again. What you fail to understand, is that NBC views revenue from iTunes as trivial. Trivial enough that they can afford to sour people on the market, during a series of highly destructive "tests". Analysts have been commenting that the future of content, is NOT iTunes, but in video streams. Moreover, NBC makes substantially more from streaming their shows with sponsored advertisment, than they make from iTunes sales. As NBC themselves have said, they feel that Apple only uses them to sell iPods, and that Apple needs to do more to battle piracy. As such, its more in NBCs interest to abandon the small money they gain from iTunes, and have customers transition to their "free" ad supported streams on services like Hulu. There is no REAL interest in finding the "right price point" so much as simply squeezing money out of a distribution model they feel will die away.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wnurse
Even if they haven't, apple does not want them to discover the price point. By keeping videos at $1.99, NBC will never know what the best price point is.
Its $1.99. NBC isn't trying to "find" anything. Even if NBC were to vary prices over a 5 year period, no ONE price would be the result. They would simply be using variable pricing as a way to manipulate consumer spending, and perhaps generate "surges" by artificially imposing "tarrifs" and then removing them, with relation to the perfectly working system in place now.
Let's be honest here. NBC is used to determing pricing based on popularity. As movies are not a "resource", they can be copied unlimited times. Instead of the normal laws of supply and demand, as it relates to publishing, manufacturing, and shelf space, instead, very arbitrary prices are imposed on the product in an effort to relate it to the "old market" mindset. Pricing isn't even related to how much money the movie cost to make! If it did, "Superman Returns" and "Waterworld" would never sell!
BOTTOMLINE:
When Walmart evaluates a product for inclusion in their stores, they go, make their calculations, and they come back and say, "We need the product at X price. Can you do that?" If the vendor can do it, great... everyone wins. If they can't. Whoops. I guess that's a non-starter. iTunes isn't simply a bucket to piss in. It's a specific FORMAT. When iTunes introduced their DRM-free format, it was introduced as a new "product". It was pitched as a new value proposition for customers. If a publisher wants to go for this, great. If not, no one's got a gun to their head.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wnurse
So NBC is right.. the only entity a $1.99/video helps is apple. That helps them sell their ipods cause they are selling NBC product at an artificial low price. How do i know it's low?.. cause they are selling old episodes for $1.99, same as new episodes.. either apple is robbing the consumers (cause there is no way in hell an old episode is worth as much as a new one.. or even an episode from a less popular show worth as much as one from a very popular show) or they are taking revenue from NBC.. ie, NBC is subsidizing the sales of Video Ipods.
Well, this is all garbage. One of the supplementary uses of iTunes has been as advertising. This has been pitched to networks and has been shown to help ratings and given shows a wider footprint. Studios have also begun doing this with Netflix, putting out "free" DVDs of upcoming shows. Moreover, iTunes is not a one-for-one crossover with DVD sales. Generally people buying episodes on iTunes were either NEVER going to buy the season on DVD, or simply wanted to "catch up" like with TiVo. I've personally refrained from buying anything on iTune that I plan to buy the DVD for later (especially with its "extra features" and such). If I DO buy one or two episodes, and I really liked the series, this would never stop me from then proceeding to pick up the DVD later. Money from iTunes is generally going to be "extra" for TV shows. It's also a very potent disincentive for people to "pirate" videos, when they can get such high quality and readily available copies on iTunes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wnurse
Was this the kind of argument you wanted to see?.
(i'm sure a few mac fans knew this but why would they point this out?.. apple is great, everyone else is greedy).
Smacks of a poor argument, sorry. NBC is trying to kill the golden goose. They have ulterior motives, and are very short sighted about how they should consider iTunes as a valuable partner. There is a serious sense of coporate penis-envy going on. In the responding press-release, NBC made very few moving statements in its defense. The comments were mostly aimed at random criticisms of Apple. Considering the deal would have automatically renewed at the same terms, it seems clear NBC didn't want to "same terms" and wanted "more" money. This lends to the veracity of Apple's only negative comment regarding NBC. An accurate one.
wnurse, you are the perfect example of the "anti-Apple AppleZealot" that seems to be quite pervasive on these forums and many other forums nowadays. Your "breed" comes on with a lot of hate and (as a poster eloquently put it) vehemence for us "Apple fanboys" -- yet you all use (and probably like) Macs and iPods. Accept that you are leaving Windows and PCs behind, that this is in general a good thing [not the "only" thing] and you will hate us (and yourself and your "breed") less in the process. Sure, people with Macs have more money, but people with Lamborghinis and Ferraris have more... Your Mac was worth the money right? Otherwise you would have sold it by now...
[QUOTE=Cleverboy;1136296]There's "sugar coating" a message, and then there's pouring kerosene all over the message, setting it on fire, and leaving it on someone's doorstep. Just saying.
Quote:
Apple actually makes this argument to the studios. They say that, given the lack of shipping and packaging costs, there are vast optimization costs to be passed on to customers. The $1.99 price was not reached randomly you realize. Apple's stance is that raising prices past $1.99 would sour demand by causing customers to question whether they will purchase something more than they would if the price was uniform.
Yes, $1.99 was not reached randomly but that misses the point. How can apple prove that increasing it beyond $1.99 would sour demand?. That's why price point needs to be determined. At the end of the day, this is still NBC assets. If they chose lower demand but higher revenue, who is apple to disagree?. You assume lower demand automatically equals lower revenue but that is not true or else every company would sell their products for a penny (that's a pretty low price right?.. should send revenue through the roof).
Quote:
Ah, hah... but you just slipped there. You're saying that "videos are videos". Apple understands that new movies are worth more than old movies or "library" or "catalog" items. Apple allows for $12.95-$14.99 pricing on new videos, and $9.99 on old videos. Television shows have no correlation. when it comes to "episodes" of TV shows or "tracks" of music, Apple has noted that uniformity on pricing removes complexity for customers.
Of course uniformity on pricing removes complexity for customers, duh!!!. If all cars were sold at the same price, that would remove complexity for customers too!!!. That is not the point. NBC is not interested in whether the customer has a uniform experience, they are interested in revenue. The only company price uniformity helps is apple, thus you make my point. Apple gains from this, NBC loses.
Quote:
It's like walking into a convenience store and seeing three candy bars of the same volume. One candybar is 75 cents, the other is $2.50 and the other is 25 cents. This is flatly stupid and on such items, customers would likely make less purchases, due to all the excess pricing consideration being made on such small amounts of money. Really, its just stupid.
Wow, candy companies would sure like to hire you right now!!!.. they must be surprised by your analysis. They thought there were doing pretty well until you made your analysis.
Quote:
Don't be silly. Nothing Apple is doing "flies in the face" of anything. Many stores employ similar notions of standardization, wherever they want customers to make purchases of small amounts. Unlike iTunes however, most brick and mortar stores need to deal with other issues like generating foot traffic (Apple uses podcasts and giveaways), and shelf space. In that digital media is a different animal, and anyone who thinks its all the same needs a dopeslap. Originally, the music industry tried services like "PressPlay" and really wanted to encourage the "subscription" and "streaming" model for music on the Internet. This failed, and continues to fail.
Many stores employ similar notions of standardization?. which stores?. What store sells all their products in a specific category for the same price?. Are you dumb or just pretending to be dumb?.
Quote:
Smacks of a poor argument, sorry. NBC is trying to kill the golden goose. They have ulterior motives, and are very short sighted about how they should consider iTunes as a valuable partner. There is a serious sense of coporate penis-envy going on. In the responding press-release, NBC made very few moving statements in its defense. The comments were mostly aimed at random criticisms of Apple. Considering the deal would have automatically renewed at the same terms, it seems clear NBC didn't want to "same terms" and wanted "more" money. This lends to the veracity of Apple's only negative comment regarding NBC. An accurate one.
NBC ulterior motive is more profit. I thought we were living in a capitalistic society, not a communist one. All companies have the same motives, even apple. Minimize cost, maximize profits. How lovely of apple to limit NBC profits for consumers benefit. Thanks Uncle Stevie. Now, can I have an 4GB ipod for $99?. Why don't apple limit their profits and stop telling everyone else how much profit they can make. I'm more interested in a $900 mac laptop than some frigging $1.99 tv episode!!.
You know, when i first started raving about how apple overpriced their computers, mac fans defended the company decision by saying that they needed the revenue to be able to create more products.. some actually said the quality justified the markup.
I wonder, now that apple is swimming in money, do they still need the money?.
I really get pissed when apple start pontificating about how other companies want more money but they continue to insist on an extremely high margin on their computers. How hypocritical!!!. Apple better be careful, as they get bigger, it will be harder for them to justify making obscene amounts of money on their products while bashing everyone else for trying to do the same. Americans in general are very forgiving but one thing i know, Americans do not stand for hypocrisy. I understand apple fans will love and worship Jobs (and why shouldn't they?.. he practically saved apple by himself) but the general public does not have the same love for Jobs and all they see is a company trying to bully other companies. After ranting and raving against microsoft for it's monopolostic behavior, apple now finds that it's convinient to do what microsoft would do. I guess the goal is rant and rave against the powers until you become a power. If some other company were to create a totally new operating system with ease of use as macOSX with decent pricing, i would buy their products in a flash. I used to be a hardcore mac fan who was willing to pay the prices but now, what is the friggin excuse... really, can someone explain to me why apple still need the ridiculous high margins on their products?. They are not a company in danger anymore. They may soon rival microsoft in revenue. As a person who helped keep this company afloat when it was fighting to stay alive by buying their products, i feel like i should be rewarded. Maybe apple should have special pricing for repeat customers or long term customers (they surely have a database of people who used to buy their products when they were on the brink of extinction).
That is my beef really. This is why i am sour on apple now. Why the hell should i buy their overpriced iphone.. let the windows converts pay that ridiculous price..
What is more amazing to me is how the mac faithfull keep paying through their arses year after year without any complaints. No one is recognizing the absurdity of the situation?.
Berating NBC for being greedy but praising Apple for making as much money as they can?.
Isn't the excuse apple can price their products higher than competitors cause people would buy at that price?. Now NBC is being told they cannot price their products above $1.99 even though people would buy at a higher price?. Look at apple, they voluntarily choose to limit demand for a certain profit level (if they lowered mac prices, it would spur demand) and now they are telling NBC that demand is more important than maximizing revenue?.
Apple just handily bested NBC Universal. Not only does NBC look like complete assholes for wanting three times wholesale, but now NBC's fall season has taken a huge setback. Shows like The Office and Heroes were popularized by (at least in part) by iTunes. Given that NBC is launching significantly more shows than usual this upcoming season, Apple just hit NBC right where it hurts. NBC was hoping they could take advantage of their shows being available on iTunes through December to build audiences for their new programming, but now NBC is left out to dry. NBC's fall programming builds on the success of shows like The Office and Heroes targeting a similar audience. Without iTunes, NBC stands to suffer greatly this fall.
Well played, Apple. Well played.
Could NOT agree more! I'm getting sick & tired of these millionaires complaining about revenue for a show that is available FREE on tv. They make buck on ads and iTunes & dvds were once considered gravy, but now they're getting waaaaaay too greedy. $5 dollars for a free tv show?! I was about to complain about $1.99. I liked the 99 cent idea. The real die-hard fans will buy the dvd series box sets anyway. The iTunes dls are a great way to catch up if TIVO goes wacko (which happens more times than I'm happy about). But, why pay more than 40 bucks for dls only to pay 50 or 60 when the box set drops?! Talk about charging me twice!
And these suits continue to scratch their heads over why p2p is still so rampant? $5 dollars/show for NBC?!
No thanks...I'll go back to the internet for free.
Comments
Oh come on.. people have been attacking NBC left and right and trumpeting how virtuous apple is. I'm not even saying apple is bad. I'm just saying they are not in the right and you know what?.. apple fans need to be told sometimes that they are full of shit. Why should i sugarcoat it?.
There's "sugar coating" a message, and then there's pouring kerosene all over the message, setting it on fire, and leaving it on someone's doorstep. Just saying.
Think about it.. how can $1.99 videos favor NBC?.. people say that NBC makes more money at $1.99 but these people are not economists.
Apple actually makes this argument to the studios. They say that, given the lack of shipping and packaging costs, there are vast optimization costs to be passed on to customers. The $1.99 price was not reached randomly you realize. Apple's stance is that raising prices past $1.99 would sour demand by causing customers to question whether they will purchase something more than they would if the price was uniform.
Actually, NBC is right. there is no way on earth the price point of a old video is the same as a new and hot video so apple is incorrect in thinking all videos are worth $1.99
Ah, hah... but you just slipped there. You're saying that "videos are videos". Apple understands that new movies are worth more than old movies or "library" or "catalog" items. Apple allows for $12.95-$14.99 pricing on new videos, and $9.99 on old videos. Television shows have no correlation. when it comes to "episodes" of TV shows or "tracks" of music, Apple has noted that uniformity on pricing removes complexity for customers. It's like walking into a convenience store and seeing three candy bars of the same volume. One candybar is 75 cents, the other is $2.50 and the other is 25 cents. This is flatly stupid and on such items, customers would likely make less purchases, due to all the excess pricing consideration being made on such small amounts of money. Really, its just stupid.
but apple is framing the argument in a way to galvanize their fans. Greedy NBC wants your money!!!.. while ignoring the fact that their pricing strategy flies in the face of economics.
Don't be silly. Nothing Apple is doing "flies in the face" of anything. Many stores employ similar notions of standardization, wherever they want customers to make purchases of small amounts. Unlike iTunes however, most brick and mortar stores need to deal with other issues like generating foot traffic (Apple uses podcasts and giveaways), and shelf space. In that digital media is a different animal, and anyone who thinks its all the same needs a dopeslap. Originally, the music industry tried services like "PressPlay" and really wanted to encourage the "subscription" and "streaming" model for music on the Internet. This failed, and continues to fail.
With more sophisticaed DRM, iTunes allowed the purchase model to be implemented, where people felt they could "own" their music. Applying this to the video market, its much the same. There is NO material cost, and so it becomes feasible to sell productions episode to episode. Sometimes this comes out to less than the corresponding DVD compilation of a season/collection, other times it comes out to substantially more (usually on older works).
think of gas.. gas prices rise but people still buy gas.. while some of that behavior is due to the fact people have to actually travel.. they don't curtail their travel.
Um, let's... let's not. Dude, you are not SERIOUSLY comparing a digital tv show file to a fossil fuel...? Are you? Such a comparison seems to display a deep deep misunderstanding, that perhaps NBC is also engaging in. Let me clue you in. Distribution pricing on the Internet is PLUNGING. Plunging. Going down, down, down, down. Downloading 2 GB of data cost substantially MORE 5 years ago than it does now, and it continues to go down. High prices on CDs have been souring people from spending for many years. This is a fact, even though production costs have been dropping substantially.
Let's take a real example. For a long time, audio cassettes have competed with CDs. When they first came out, the CD version was more expensive than the audio cassette version of a production. For instance, I purchased the Harry Potter series on audio cassette back at the start. As the years went by, I noticed that the CDs always cost much more, until this year, when the audio cassette version was finally met by the price of the CD version. Humorously, I believe the original price of the CDs was around $75, but now while the retail price is still roughly the same, the selling price is substantially less (around $45-$55 pretty much everywhere, in spite of the MSRP). This is clear evidence of an inflated cost that has more to do with other factors. Meanwhile the REAL price has gone down, to reflect cost and consumer demand. It's this type of politicing that's detrimental and illusive for consumers.
I can assure you that even if NBC were to lose some people by raising the prices of their video (you perhaps), they would more than make up for it in extra revenue (if they did their studies right and have identified the correct price point).
No. Let's try that again. What you fail to understand, is that NBC views revenue from iTunes as trivial. Trivial enough that they can afford to sour people on the market, during a series of highly destructive "tests". Analysts have been commenting that the future of content, is NOT iTunes, but in video streams. Moreover, NBC makes substantially more from streaming their shows with sponsored advertisment, than they make from iTunes sales. As NBC themselves have said, they feel that Apple only uses them to sell iPods, and that Apple needs to do more to battle piracy. As such, its more in NBCs interest to abandon the small money they gain from iTunes, and have customers transition to their "free" ad supported streams on services like Hulu. There is no REAL interest in finding the "right price point" so much as simply squeezing money out of a distribution model they feel will die away.
Even if they haven't, apple does not want them to discover the price point. By keeping videos at $1.99, NBC will never know what the best price point is.
Its $1.99. NBC isn't trying to "find" anything. Even if NBC were to vary prices over a 5 year period, no ONE price would be the result. They would simply be using variable pricing as a way to manipulate consumer spending, and perhaps generate "surges" by artificially imposing "tarrifs" and then removing them, with relation to the perfectly working system in place now.
Let's be honest here. NBC is used to determing pricing based on popularity. As movies are not a "resource", they can be copied unlimited times. Instead of the normal laws of supply and demand, as it relates to publishing, manufacturing, and shelf space, instead, very arbitrary prices are imposed on the product in an effort to relate it to the "old market" mindset. Pricing isn't even related to how much money the movie cost to make! If it did, "Superman Returns" and "Waterworld" would never sell!
BOTTOMLINE:
When Walmart evaluates a product for inclusion in their stores, they go, make their calculations, and they come back and say, "We need the product at X price. Can you do that?" If the vendor can do it, great... everyone wins. If they can't. Whoops. I guess that's a non-starter. iTunes isn't simply a bucket to piss in. It's a specific FORMAT. When iTunes introduced their DRM-free format, it was introduced as a new "product". It was pitched as a new value proposition for customers. If a publisher wants to go for this, great. If not, no one's got a gun to their head.
So NBC is right.. the only entity a $1.99/video helps is apple. That helps them sell their ipods cause they are selling NBC product at an artificial low price. How do i know it's low?.. cause they are selling old episodes for $1.99, same as new episodes.. either apple is robbing the consumers (cause there is no way in hell an old episode is worth as much as a new one.. or even an episode from a less popular show worth as much as one from a very popular show) or they are taking revenue from NBC.. ie, NBC is subsidizing the sales of Video Ipods.
Well, this is all garbage. One of the supplementary uses of iTunes has been as advertising. This has been pitched to networks and has been shown to help ratings and given shows a wider footprint. Studios have also begun doing this with Netflix, putting out "free" DVDs of upcoming shows. Moreover, iTunes is not a one-for-one crossover with DVD sales. Generally people buying episodes on iTunes were either NEVER going to buy the season on DVD, or simply wanted to "catch up" like with TiVo. I've personally refrained from buying anything on iTune that I plan to buy the DVD for later (especially with its "extra features" and such). If I DO buy one or two episodes, and I really liked the series, this would never stop me from then proceeding to pick up the DVD later. Money from iTunes is generally going to be "extra" for TV shows. It's also a very potent disincentive for people to "pirate" videos, when they can get such high quality and readily available copies on iTunes.
Was this the kind of argument you wanted to see?.
(i'm sure a few mac fans knew this but why would they point this out?.. apple is great, everyone else is greedy).
Smacks of a poor argument, sorry. NBC is trying to kill the golden goose. They have ulterior motives, and are very short sighted about how they should consider iTunes as a valuable partner. There is a serious sense of coporate penis-envy going on. In the responding press-release, NBC made very few moving statements in its defense. The comments were mostly aimed at random criticisms of Apple. Considering the deal would have automatically renewed at the same terms, it seems clear NBC didn't want to "same terms" and wanted "more" money. This lends to the veracity of Apple's only negative comment regarding NBC. An accurate one.
~ CB
Apple actually makes this argument to the studios. They say that, given the lack of shipping and packaging costs, there are vast optimization costs to be passed on to customers. The $1.99 price was not reached randomly you realize. Apple's stance is that raising prices past $1.99 would sour demand by causing customers to question whether they will purchase something more than they would if the price was uniform.
Yes, $1.99 was not reached randomly but that misses the point. How can apple prove that increasing it beyond $1.99 would sour demand?. That's why price point needs to be determined. At the end of the day, this is still NBC assets. If they chose lower demand but higher revenue, who is apple to disagree?. You assume lower demand automatically equals lower revenue but that is not true or else every company would sell their products for a penny (that's a pretty low price right?.. should send revenue through the roof).
Ah, hah... but you just slipped there. You're saying that "videos are videos". Apple understands that new movies are worth more than old movies or "library" or "catalog" items. Apple allows for $12.95-$14.99 pricing on new videos, and $9.99 on old videos. Television shows have no correlation. when it comes to "episodes" of TV shows or "tracks" of music, Apple has noted that uniformity on pricing removes complexity for customers.
Of course uniformity on pricing removes complexity for customers, duh!!!. If all cars were sold at the same price, that would remove complexity for customers too!!!. That is not the point. NBC is not interested in whether the customer has a uniform experience, they are interested in revenue. The only company price uniformity helps is apple, thus you make my point. Apple gains from this, NBC loses.
It's like walking into a convenience store and seeing three candy bars of the same volume. One candybar is 75 cents, the other is $2.50 and the other is 25 cents. This is flatly stupid and on such items, customers would likely make less purchases, due to all the excess pricing consideration being made on such small amounts of money. Really, its just stupid.
Wow, candy companies would sure like to hire you right now!!!.. they must be surprised by your analysis. They thought there were doing pretty well until you made your analysis.
Don't be silly. Nothing Apple is doing "flies in the face" of anything. Many stores employ similar notions of standardization, wherever they want customers to make purchases of small amounts. Unlike iTunes however, most brick and mortar stores need to deal with other issues like generating foot traffic (Apple uses podcasts and giveaways), and shelf space. In that digital media is a different animal, and anyone who thinks its all the same needs a dopeslap. Originally, the music industry tried services like "PressPlay" and really wanted to encourage the "subscription" and "streaming" model for music on the Internet. This failed, and continues to fail.
Many stores employ similar notions of standardization?. which stores?. What store sells all their products in a specific category for the same price?. Are you dumb or just pretending to be dumb?.
Smacks of a poor argument, sorry. NBC is trying to kill the golden goose. They have ulterior motives, and are very short sighted about how they should consider iTunes as a valuable partner. There is a serious sense of coporate penis-envy going on. In the responding press-release, NBC made very few moving statements in its defense. The comments were mostly aimed at random criticisms of Apple. Considering the deal would have automatically renewed at the same terms, it seems clear NBC didn't want to "same terms" and wanted "more" money. This lends to the veracity of Apple's only negative comment regarding NBC. An accurate one.
NBC ulterior motive is more profit. I thought we were living in a capitalistic society, not a communist one. All companies have the same motives, even apple. Minimize cost, maximize profits. How lovely of apple to limit NBC profits for consumers benefit. Thanks Uncle Stevie. Now, can I have an 4GB ipod for $99?. Why don't apple limit their profits and stop telling everyone else how much profit they can make. I'm more interested in a $900 mac laptop than some frigging $1.99 tv episode!!.
I wonder, now that apple is swimming in money, do they still need the money?.
I really get pissed when apple start pontificating about how other companies want more money but they continue to insist on an extremely high margin on their computers. How hypocritical!!!. Apple better be careful, as they get bigger, it will be harder for them to justify making obscene amounts of money on their products while bashing everyone else for trying to do the same. Americans in general are very forgiving but one thing i know, Americans do not stand for hypocrisy. I understand apple fans will love and worship Jobs (and why shouldn't they?.. he practically saved apple by himself) but the general public does not have the same love for Jobs and all they see is a company trying to bully other companies. After ranting and raving against microsoft for it's monopolostic behavior, apple now finds that it's convinient to do what microsoft would do. I guess the goal is rant and rave against the powers until you become a power. If some other company were to create a totally new operating system with ease of use as macOSX with decent pricing, i would buy their products in a flash. I used to be a hardcore mac fan who was willing to pay the prices but now, what is the friggin excuse... really, can someone explain to me why apple still need the ridiculous high margins on their products?. They are not a company in danger anymore. They may soon rival microsoft in revenue. As a person who helped keep this company afloat when it was fighting to stay alive by buying their products, i feel like i should be rewarded. Maybe apple should have special pricing for repeat customers or long term customers (they surely have a database of people who used to buy their products when they were on the brink of extinction).
That is my beef really. This is why i am sour on apple now. Why the hell should i buy their overpriced iphone.. let the windows converts pay that ridiculous price..
What is more amazing to me is how the mac faithfull keep paying through their arses year after year without any complaints. No one is recognizing the absurdity of the situation?.
Berating NBC for being greedy but praising Apple for making as much money as they can?.
Isn't the excuse apple can price their products higher than competitors cause people would buy at that price?. Now NBC is being told they cannot price their products above $1.99 even though people would buy at a higher price?. Look at apple, they voluntarily choose to limit demand for a certain profit level (if they lowered mac prices, it would spur demand) and now they are telling NBC that demand is more important than maximizing revenue?.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!!!.
Talk about owned.
Apple just handily bested NBC Universal. Not only does NBC look like complete assholes for wanting three times wholesale, but now NBC's fall season has taken a huge setback. Shows like The Office and Heroes were popularized by (at least in part) by iTunes. Given that NBC is launching significantly more shows than usual this upcoming season, Apple just hit NBC right where it hurts. NBC was hoping they could take advantage of their shows being available on iTunes through December to build audiences for their new programming, but now NBC is left out to dry. NBC's fall programming builds on the success of shows like The Office and Heroes targeting a similar audience. Without iTunes, NBC stands to suffer greatly this fall.
Well played, Apple. Well played.
Could NOT agree more! I'm getting sick & tired of these millionaires complaining about revenue for a show that is available FREE on tv. They make buck on ads and iTunes & dvds were once considered gravy, but now they're getting waaaaaay too greedy. $5 dollars for a free tv show?! I was about to complain about $1.99. I liked the 99 cent idea. The real die-hard fans will buy the dvd series box sets anyway. The iTunes dls are a great way to catch up if TIVO goes wacko (which happens more times than I'm happy about). But, why pay more than 40 bucks for dls only to pay 50 or 60 when the box set drops?! Talk about charging me twice!
And these suits continue to scratch their heads over why p2p is still so rampant? $5 dollars/show for NBC?!
No thanks...I'll go back to the internet for free.