New Configurations in Store for iPod

 

LOS ANGELES (By Jesus Sanchez, LATimes) September 12, 2006 — Apple Computer today retooled its popular line of iPod music and video players and added movies to its iTunes online store in an effort to win over film fans and video gamers.

The new offerings include an iPod capable of playing video games and storing more full-length movies and a new, half-inch-square iPod shuffle, which the company described as the world's smallest digital player.

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs also unveiled a new deal to sell 75 films from Walt Disney Co. through its iTunes online store. The films — which include those made through Disney's Pixar, Touchstone and Miramax divisions — will be sold for $12.99 on the same day they become available in the DVD format.

"In less than one year we've grown from offering just five TV shows to offering over 220 TV shows, and we hope to do the same with movies," said Jobs in a statement. "iTunes is selling over 1 million videos a week, and we hope to match this with movies in less than a year."

The new, top of the line version of the iPod, priced at $349, will feature a brighter screen and enough expanded capacity to hold as many as 20,000 songs or 100 hours of video. The fifth-generation iPod will also be able to play video games sold over iTunes.

While Apple expanded the capacity of the iPod, it shrank the size of its entry level music player, the iPod shuffle, into a half-inch cube priced at $79. The new shuffle, which weighs half an ounce, can hold about 140 songs.

The online distribution deal expands the Apple and Disney online relationship. Last year, Disney's ABC television network agreed to sell episodes of some of its most popular shows on iTunes one day after they were broadcast.

"ABC and Disney Channel were the first networks to offer television programming on iTunes, and we're once again breaking new ground as the Walt Disney Studios become the first to debut feature films on the iTunes platform," said Walt Disney Co. President Robert Iger in a statement.

In a separate deal, Apple and the National Football League will sell downloads of NFL game highlights for $1.99 the day after the games are played.