In an interesting move, Warner Brothers has released two movies as apps — including extras — semi-skirting the iTunes Store. The idea is to offer movies to customers who live in countries without movie sales via iTunes. Of course, Apple still gets the 30% cut of the in-app purchase cost.
Interestingly, this technique goes directly against one of the clauses in Apple’s current App Store guidelines, 2.21: “Apps that are simply a song or movie should be submitted to the iTunes store. Apps that are simply a book should be submitted to the iBookstore.” Apparently not all apps-as-movies are created equal.
Movies are distributed as in-app purchases via free universal iOS apps (one per film). As of this writing only two movies are available: The Dark Knight and Inception. Once you’ve made your choice, the app offers DVR-like controls and works over Wi-Fi and 3G. You’ll also find scene selection and extras like trivia. Fun, no?
Their prices are US$9.99 for streaming or $11.99 for purchase. Of course, movies are big, and at 1.2 GB The Dark Knight gobbles up a good amount of your device’s internal storage.
It looks like fun. Let us know what you think if you check it out.
[via 9to5Mac]
Warner Brothers sells movies as apps, skirts iTunes originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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