Mysterious Apple “Press Event” to be Held September 12th
Apple recently announced that it will be holding a special press event on September 12th, leading many to speculate that the meeting will be a long-anticipated product launch. Number one on the wish-list for Apple enthusiasts is the the announcement of an iTunes-fueled movie downloading service, which has been rumored about for months. If this service is finally made official, we should also expect the announced release of new iPods with better video capabilities.
Wal-Mart, of course, is not happy about this impending service from Apple, as it will not only assuredly cut into their DVD sales, but will also affect their plan to offer their own movie downloading service in the near future. The recent kicker is that Apple is expected to offer downloads for less money than the wholesale price Wal-mart has to pay studios for the rights to sell DVDs in-store.
In an attempt to flex its retail muscle, Wal-mart (which accounts for roughly 40% of national DVD sales) is pushing studios to drop wholesale prices and is trying to discourage them from forming licensing agreements with Apple by threatening to not sell certain titles.
It should be interesting to see how this plays out. (Actually, scratch that. Screw Wal-mart. I hope they get smoked on this.)
Thanks to JK on the Run.