Firm to build on surging sales

With an ultra-slim notebook computer and online movie rental service newly unveiled, Apple Inc is building on surging Macintosh sales and doubling its bet on delivering video to portable devices and televisions over the Internet.

Apple's foray into the online movie rental business was widely expected, but Chief Executive Steve Jobs surprised some on Tuesday by pulling off alliances with all six major movie studios, including its fierce rival Sony Pictures and Universal, which stopped offering NBC Universal TV shows on Apple's iTunes Store last fall after a spat over pricing and control.

The disagreement with Universal remains, Apple officials said. But Apple is forging ahead with its movie offerings, under terms similar to those Hollywood has dictated with other online movie providers.

"Studios have voiced their opinion that they don't want to work with Apple but they're still doing so," said American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu. "That's because there's going to be a paradigm shift in the online movie space, and Apple is in the best position to lead that."

With millions of people already using iTunes to download music or TV shows, Apple already has a coveted customer base, Wu said.

The service, which launched on Tuesday in the United States and will roll out internationally later this year, will work on Macs, Windows-based machines, iPhones, iPods or Apple TV set-top boxes, which got a significant makeover on Tuesday.

Caris & Co analyst Shebly Seyrafi said the newly unveiled MacBook Air's price tag "may have been higher than people would have hoped for". Investors also may be "incrementally" concerned that Apple's iPhone was not updated so that it can connect to faster cellular networks, he said.

Wu said Apple also likely disappointed some investors who have simply come to expect endless revolutionary innovations from the company.

Agencies

(China Daily 01/17/2008 page16)