Tech Industry

Digital media is coming of age, and as it does a host of distinct, niche-based services are emerging focused on distinctive markets. And while these services may take some customers away from Apple’s iTunes, they clearly owe a debt to Cupertino.

Today’s big news comes from the BBC, whose BBC Worldwide arm has elected to launch its own ad-supported online music service, offering a huge collection of original BBC audio and video recordings. 

BBC Worldwide plans to begin testing the new service in November, and has its eyes on a January launch of the new service, which will offer music fans a range of items, from Old Grey Whistle Test recordings to Glastonbury Festival highlights – and the huge and historically important collection will be made available for free streaming online, a report claims. 

The material will also be made available DRM-free at prices based on those charged by iTunes, with the broadcaster hoping to offer a huge host of material in future. The BBC already works with Apple’s service, recently making hit comedy series, ‘The Young Ones’ available for sale through the service.

In the red corner, Universal Music UK, the company behind LostTunes and a few other clearly anti-Apple moves, has introduced its latest offering, this time a new soundtracks download store, called TheMusicFrom. This store offers soundtracks from over 200 Universal movies, sold DRM-free.

Despite imminent recession, the Apple-inspired tsumani in digital distribution seems set to continue, with recent research from StrategyEye suggesting that the sector will continue to grow, despite any future recession.

78% of broadcasters believe that their long term revenues will be affected positively by audience migration to online sites – "so we can expect much more from the BBC, Project Kangaroo, NBC et al. – and iTunes TV show sales seem set to grow into a valuable part of the overall matrix," a report explains.

Growth in online advertising and a focus on social networks also seems likely to become ever more important in the future development of the industry, which will also see increasing focus on mobile devices a la iPhone and device ubiquity, as seen in iPlayer.

The former feature is one of the many additions being bandied around for iTunes, which many industry-watchers expect will see a major update next month. While there’s nothing written in stone until Apple announces it, some reports predict the digital media service will finally offer some form of social networking between users (designed to boost film, app and music sales), as well as a much-discussed iTunes subscription service.

Orange has denied widespread reports it hired actors to queue outside of its stores in Poland on last Friday’s iPhone launch.

Controversy began last week when a news report – citing an unnamed Orange employee – said that the firm was paying people to stand outside of its stores. The story struck a nerve, with widespread reporting all over the internet.

The story wasn’t true, Orange told AdAge.com, which reports the official rebuttal as follows: "As part of the excitement around the launch of the iPhone, some of our team have been joining customers outside our shops. Their aim is to welcome people to the Orange shop, share in their excitement and give information about Orange tariffs."

The Orange spokesperson also revealed, "[iPhone] sales are strong and we are happy."

Whether Orange’s denial will be as widely-reported as the original claim remains open to question.

Here’s an unusual one that’s crossed our desk this morning – Apple’s getting into the crowded Big Brother CCTV market, and will appear with leading security vendor, videoNEXT (love the Next in that name) at a special event next month.

Yep, that’s right, the company that once praised the crazy ones is now looking to deploy its technologies in new ways in order to keep an eye on people, so they don’t get too crazy…

So, what’s the deal? OK – "videoNEXT and Apple will be co-hosting a panel of industry experts who will be discussing the future of video surveillance and where video meets information technology," we’ve been told.

The panel will be moderated by Garrett Rice, senior manager, Enterprise Solutions at Apple. (Note the Enterprise Solutions job title there, folks…)

Other panelists at this special session will include

– Chris Gettings, Founder and Chairman, videoNEXT

– John Honovich, PSP, Founder of ipvideomarket.info

– Steve Hunt, CEO and Founder, Hunt Business Intelligence and author of SecurityDreamer.com

– Peter Michael, P.E., PMP, Principal Engineer, Surveillance and Security, SAIC

– Fredrik Nilsson, General Manager, Americas, Axis Communications 

Founded in 2002, and headquartered near Washington, DC, videoNEXT’s flagship platform, Security Knowledge Manager (SKM), leverages a classical IT approach to video and sensor management for capturing, organizing, storing and displaying video, access control and sensor data.  

The free, RSVP-only event takes place on Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 4pm, followed by a cocktail reception at ASIS 2008 at the Georgia World Congress Center.

We’ve always been fans of Security Spy for server room cameras ourselves.

Here’s a fun little website that helps relieve the Adobe stress that many of us creative types and innocent bystanders endure every working day.  Everyone out there should have a gripe or two to add to the mix.  Who knows?  Maybe Adobe will even listen.  Our latest: "Have a coherent licensing structure for small creative shops".  What’s yours?

Update: Oh yeah, they do listen.  Everyone’s favorite Adobe Blogger John Nack has Adobe’s response….which is exactly what you’d want to hear from Adobe.  Way to turn a possibly embarrassing situation into a way to show your customers you care. 

One has to wonder how much they would care, however, if they had comptition in the marketplace.

Via DF

Enterprise users aren’t immune to the attractions of the Mac, with analyst Benjamin Gray of Forrester Research reporting that Mac adoption among business users has QUADRUPLED since 2006.

This essentially means Mac usage jumped from 1.1% in October 2006 to 3.6% a year later and to 4.5% in June 2007.

Those stats are extremely significant, causing the analyst to say (as detailed by eWeek), "Mac continues its slow gain among Forrester’s clients, even without an enterprise strategy. Apple’s singular focus on user experience has resulted in some success in the enterprise—without even trying to break into the market."

These findings are included within a newly-published Forrester Research report, "Corporate Desktop Operating System Trends, Q4 2007 Through Q2 2008: Windows Vista Deployments Are Finally Ramping Up, While Mac Continues Its Slow March on the Enterprise."

Lending weight to these claims is that these numbers aren’t simply plucked from empty air, the analysts surveyed more than 50,000 enterprise end users from 2,500 organizations to put together its data.

While Apple’s share remains small in comparison with Windows in the enterprise (94.9%in June), every percentage of the market equates to significant sales for Apple.

The iPhone and iPod halos help boost visibility and sales, "Strong iPod branding and sales have led to greater consumer sales of Apple PCs; in turn, this has lured enthusiasts and small workgroups with supple IT departments beyond the standard domain of design and media."

Apple could attract wider sales by reducing prices and liberalising its controls over Mac repair, upgrade and servicing, the report indicates.

Clearly, there’s more growth ahead. One in three Fortune 500 companies are already exploring iPhone software development, meaning Apple has at least put a calling card in place within relevant departments at some of the world’s largest enterprise users.

And with Apple widely predicted to reveal three million Mac sales within the current quarter, we see a wider upside to the future of Mac in the enterprise…

iTunes access in China has been restored, various reports emanating from the Olympic nation state, following a widely-reported blip in access last week.

Reuters had claimed that Apple’s decision to sell the newly-released compilation, ‘Songs for Tibet’ caused Chinese internet police to pull the plug on iTunes access in the country – though Chinese music fans can’t actually buy music from foreign-based music stores.

The Songs for Tibet album features 20 tracks from a range of artists, including Moby and Alanis Morissette. What’s apparently caused access to be blocked was that at least 40 athletes in the Olympic village had downloaded the music to play on their iPods in support of the campaign to Free Tibet.

An Apple tech support email said: "iTunes is not being blocked in China from our end, but access to the iTunes Store IS restricted in some areas in China."

There was some controversy over the accuracy of these reports, with a certain someone’s Computerworld blog explaining some of this.

"Although the timing is bad and the profile of this particular album is high, it is hard to believe the Chinese would single out iTunes as a means of spreading propaganda at this time. You’ve been able to download tons of musicians’ pro-Tibet work for years, including everyone from the Beastie Boys to Pavarotti," the Computerworld report noted.

Now, according to forum posts there, here, and the Music 2.0 blog, access to iTunes from China has been restored, though an international message in support of human rights in Tibet has also been made.

 Digg’s Kevin Rose has kicked in with his latest pre-Apple announcement rumours.

– Curved iPod nano with horizontal screen

– Price cuts and revamps across iPod range

– iPod touch gets small changes, but gains software 2.1 as standard (no need to pay for that upgrade).

– iPod range to use price to differentiate from iPhone

– iTunes 8 (big update, new features – subscription services anyone?)

– Blu-Ray soon in OS X 10.5.6

Watch what he has to say after the break.

Apple’s on track for well over 4.1 million iPhone 3G sales by the end of September, and the introduction of the device into 21 countries today has widened the market for the device by, like, 78 per cent.

That’s the news coming out of Piper Jaffray analyst, Gene Mumster, who reckons most of Wall Street have missed out on the potential sales uptick Apple’s going to see in the coming weeks as partners push the in vogue device.

"Our iPhone estimate of 4.1 million units in the Sept. [fiscal 3Q] quarter is like conservative," Munster said, pointing out that Apple’s market reach now extends to a potential 660 million people.

"We believe Apple will trade on iPhone unit volumes for the next several quarters, so we expect the iPhone unit upside to be a positive catalyst for the stock," he said, as reported by Barrons.

With Apple’s device clearly driving interest in the smartphone market, causing one .Net developer with knowledge and experience in using Windows Mobile to call it the "most powerful mobile platform ever", spare a thought for lower echelon handset makers, who are seeing handset sales fall as consumers eye up more sophisticated devices. And while badly-timed teething problems will mean some consumers adopt solutions from the likes of RIM and Palm, the ascendant opportunity remains clearly focused on smartphones. The question is just how quickly the industry can catch-up to the evolving Apple mobile platform. And how quickly Apple can change the game whenver competitors get too close.

One of the world’s leading Microsoft .Net developers today called Apple’s iPhone the most powerful mobile platform ever seen.

Writing on his .Net Addict’s Blog, a leading global .Net expert, Kevin Hoffman, wrote: "There is one thing that I can confirm without breaking any NDA: the iPhone is hands down, without a doubt, the single most powerful mobile development platform EVER."

His statement follows publication of the details of a .Net and iPhone comparative seminar Hoffman delivered at WWDC. Hoffman has written a series of books on Microsoft’s .NET development frameworks.

Hoffman reflects that the future seems bright for the iPhone and third party developers working away to use it. "Whether the platform will see enterprise adoption or whether it will remain plagued by people making $2 flashlights… time will only tell," he said.

"That won’t change the fact that the capabilities provided by the iPhone and the ease with which developers can tap into those capabilities is simply unprecedented. This is easily reflected by the fact that, from what I hear, the iPhone App Store is selling like $1,000,000 per day of applications."

Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently told the Wall Street Journal, "This thing’s going to crest a half a billion, soon. Who knows, maybe it will be a $1 billion marketplace at some point in time."

The whole business seems set for further growth. Developers across the board from all corners of the planet are reporting excellent results from the first few weeks of applications sales, with more (and, presumably, better) applications set to ship in the coming weeks. Some developers have already been able to quit their day jobs to focus on the iPhone mission.

More positive feedback, too, from Japan, where the man who developed Japan’s first mobile phone internet service, iMode in 1999, Takeshi Natsuno, accused Japan’s telecommunications industry of stifling the kind of creativity that is so apparent in the iPhone, saying, "This is a great device. This kind of device cannot be produced by Japanese manufacturers. Never."

"Natsuno, 43, who quit top Japanese mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo three months ago, expressed disenchantment with this nation’s phone industry, which he said was dominated by stodgy conservatives, who lacked the charisma and creative sensibilities of a Steve Jobs."

However, despite huge attention surrounding the iPhone, developers are restricted in what they can discuss. "What’s really going on here is that there is a huge, burgeoning community of iPhone developers and they are positively begging for community," Hoffman explains.

"They want to be able to talk to each other, help each other, learn from each other, and have some place where they can go for support and to hone their skills. They see the restrictive terms of the NDA as an inhibition to developer adoption of the SDK and possibly even an inhibition to commercial-quality applications being produced by first-time developers because there is such a lack of community support.

"At some point this community is going to either self-form, and the NDA be damned, or Apple will facilitate it somehow. My hope is that Apple facilitates it."

 Oh Microsoft’s Anti-Apple ad campaign so is the gift that just keeps on giving – here’s a lovely classic Apple ad from the late ’90’s – just who is that nice young man taking a bow at the end? [HINT: He’s getting paid $10 million by Microsoft for an ad appearance – so I guess he’ll spend the money on a few Macs.]

 As an aside, this was a special version o the commercial that ran during the final episode of Seinfeld…and one of 10 reasons why this is a bad idea.

We’ve spoken about Apple’s continuing gains in the education sector, and as its Macs grow more popular the company’s educational teams are also pushing forward the message that its mobile devices – the iPod touch and the iPhone – could play a critical part in the future digital classroom.

It’s no great stretch of the imagination – companies like Studywiz and others have been creating, developing and selling solutions to educators that bridge the gap between classroom and home on the back of the iPod for years now – and the feedback from schools and administrators is that making education interesting, relevant and fun actually generates results.

But now things are getting far more serious, with a New York Times report looking at the US universities who are already deploying these Apple devices among students and staff. There’s a few – some highlights:

– Freed-Hardeman University in Tennessee is providing incoming students with a free Apple iPhone or iPod touch;

– Abilene Christian University in Texas has purchased 600 iPhones and 300 iPods for students entering this autumn;

– The University of Maryland has announced similar plans;

– Oklahoma Christian University will also deploy Apple solutions.

– Stanford University has hired a company to design relevant applications for the Apple device – 700 iPhones were registered on the university network last year’

Some educators would deploy Apple technologies, but haven’t yet because of AT&T. Andrew J. Yu, mobile devices platform project manager at M.I.T said, “We would have probably gone ahead of this, maybe just getting a thousand iPhones and giving them out,” – it didn’t, because of reliability problems with AT&T.

The NYT report suggests that these technology implementations are somewhat controversial, but huge amounts of research has already been done to explore the benefits of such learning.

Research projects in Edinburgh, Australia and the US have evaluated the potential of iPods to engage and stimulate students in learning, revealing 20-30 per cent improvements in educational attainment and interest in schools were such solutions have been used.

Geoff Elwood, CEO of Studywiz parent company, Etech, explains: "Studywiz has proven to work on the iPod and now it’s perfect for the iPhone. What is really is exciting is that the iPhone takes mobile learning to a whole new level because now students have full functionality and mobility of Studywiz in the palm of their hand," he added. 

The real power lies in the way using such devices gives individual learners control over how, when and where they learn. Using the iPhone (or, for that matter, an iPod touch), teachers, students and parents can access a range of interactive and media-rich tools. For example, students can take tests, access real-time information, submit assignments or blog, while parents can assess their child’s performance.

The US universities exploring these new learning tools aren’t alone, for example, the South Australian State Government has selected its Studywiz ePortfolio for a pilot project that will equip students with 21st century lifelong learning skills (using iPhones and the iPod touch).

Etech is already a driving force in the United Kingdom in helping schools to meet the British Government targets that by 2008 every pupil must have access to a ePortfolio and by 2010 every school should have a integrated online learning system.

One of Apple’s most important New York retail stores has a new problem – annoyed neighbours.

It appears some local businesses and residents around the neighborhood of the New York SoHo Apple Store are annoyed at the ever-increasing crowds the store attracts – and the recent live performance by the Jonas Brothers was the final straw, angry neighbours moan (where we were unfortunately live on the scene).

It gets worse: A lower Manhattan residents’ group has lodged a lengthy complaint against the store, moaning about loud parties, loitering crowds and "late-night disturbances".

They’re angry about the store that’s situated on the corner of Greene and Prince Streets in Manhattan’s poshest shopping zone.

"Since the Apple SoHo store moved in six years ago, it has become the worst neighbour in SoHo," wrote SoHo Alliance director Sean Sweeney. "No bar, nightclub or construction site comes close to ruining continually our quality-of-life like Apple SoHo has," he complains.

Oh – and the Jonas Brothers, apparently, "attracted thousands of young teenage girls who screamed incessantly on the street for hours for their idols, blocking traffic, injuring one resident in the crush, and inconveniencing scores of other people and businesses," he wrote in the letter, sent to city and state officials and Apple management.

Additional complaints slap Apple for illegal construction work at night, noisy air conditioning, flood lights on the roof, crowds restricting access to homes and businesses, litter, and "Apple employees during their breaks lounging, eating, smoking, littering – in effect, trespassing – on nearby people’s stoops."

We particularly like the complaint to the effect that crowds sometimes even camp out overnight on public sidewalks, giving SoHo the "appearance of a homeless encampment".

A classic example, at the end of the day, of the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) type in full effect. 

Update: 10 reasons this won’t work!

Microsoft has hired Jerry Seinfeld to be the face of its new counter-offensive-cum marketing campaign.

The oh-so-cool Microsoft will spend $300 million on a series of ads on the theme of ‘Windows Not Walls" (I’m yawning already, but there it is). The ads will feature the dramatic skills of popular in the US comedian, Seinfeld, and well known thespian, Bill Gates (acting? Who knew???).

Seinfeld will get $10 million for his part advertising the world’s largest software company while working beside one of the world’s richest men. And what’s the deal? Microsoft wants to get rid of its stodgy and dull public image, and wants to convince us all through advertising that Vista and the Zune aren’t the disasters we all know they are..

The campaign is the brainchild of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, a Miami-based ad shop that has helped revitalize brands such as Burger King, the Wall Street Journal tells us. We’re thrilled to look forward to the campaign.

Oh, and remember Jerry always had his trusty Mac Classic in the corner of his Manhattan apartment.  Its going to be hard to imagine him liking Vista.

Meanwhile, here’s some ads sanity..

There’s on-topic, off-topic and out of the blue, and the latter category today seems set to be filled by rumours The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints – the Mormons, in other words, may  be making a play to purchase online social networking service, Facebook.

It’s no idle threat – the church reportedly has assets of $30 billion – and while the claims are based on ‘friend of a friend’ grade rumour…

Now – we can see the connection in a sense – one thing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has traditionally always been interested in is connections, in the genealogical sense, but we think they’d probably get a better deal (and a more grateful seller) if they made a play for the Friends Reunited website.

Anyway – the plot thickens – reports also claim the church has been making contact to say these rumours are unfounded… true or false, we thought you’d want to know about this one, while it blips in and out of the rumour mill.

I’m going a little off topic here but the Chinese government has detained a former classmate of mine at NYU ITP.  James Powderly was detained in Beijing early on August 19th while preparing to debut a new work and technology of protest, the L.A.S.E.R. Stencil.  His current whereabouts remain unknown. 

He is a pioneer in the area of electonic communications and a brave and dedicated artist. 

I’m not sure what anybody can do but perhaps digging this article can help draw attention to his plight.  …Thanks

more

Cut and paste is coming to the iPhone – but not from Apple. Seems developers over at the Open Clip project have been scratching their heads to figure out how to bring this most-requested feature to the device. Watch the video below then we’ll give you the skinny after the jump.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/1562944 w=400&h=225]

As you’ll have seen, Open Clip’s solution is simple, workable and supported: essentially it saves copy you select within an area of the iPhone’s memory which can then be accessed by other apps using the Open Clip framework. And the roll call of developers planning to use and support the solution includes: Dial Zero, Twittelator, WordPress, Cocktail, Ultralingua and more. 

We reckon many more developers will want to get involved in the project, unless Apple offers users a definitive road map for copy and paste support. We hate it that we need to memorise a story before publishing it to this blog, for example, and lack of such support is bound to cost Apple sales.

“While just an interim fix until Apple adopts a system-wide version, OpenClip hopes to add to the iPhone user-experience and provide a working case-study for Apple, hopefully allowing them to roll-out their version more quickly,” the open source developers explained on their website.

Via: Electric Pig.

 While mobile devices may be the biggest-selling consumer electronics products in the world, with more than one billion shipping every year, the market’s under constant pressure – and the iPhone is a crucible for further change.

“Three or four years from now, no mobile device vendor – no matter what their market position today – will be in a ‘comfort zone’,” said ABI Research vice president and research director Stuart Carlaw.

Developed and developing markets for these devices are being shaped by divergent forces – developed markets are typically highly saturated, highly competitive and highly segmented, with strong product innovation, the analysts note.

Carlaw adds, “The advent of wider mobile broadband access, the drive to maximize data revenue, the desire to push smartphone operating systems down into mid-tier handsets, and rapid innovations in user interfaces will all make the mobile devices of 2010 radically unlike those of today.”

The analysts expect the kind of user interface innovation pioneered by Apple’s iPhone to continue, with wider use of accelerometers and the addition of haptic feedback to touchscreens. Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) will become an important market segment, and vendors will increasingly look to diversify their product and service offerings. 

“The mobile device market is expanding, not consolidating,” notes Carlaw, “and shows increasing micro-segmentation. Disruptive influences abound.”

 Trends set to envelope the sector include feature set explosion, the effort to drive "smart" operating systems into the mid-tier, and the diversification of business models.

Does this mean Apple will expand its iPhone range to diversify its market, or will it rely on hi-tech to see it through? Comments??

 Apple’s iPhone 3G sales could go stratospheric, with analysts recently raising Q3 estimates to 4.7 million or more.

Analyst Gene Munster at Piper Jaffray believes Apple’s selling 95 iPhone 3Gs in each of its 188 Apple retail stores every day, four times the sales momentum achieved by the previous model one year ago. That analyst now predicts Apple will sell "at least 4.47 million iPhones" in the current quarter. 

Munster mentioned that sales momentum has slowed slightly in recent days – but Apple revealed a deal with Best Buy under which the giant chain will also lend its retail weight to iPhone sales. Will this keep them high? 

The analysts at Lehman Brothers think it will. There, analyst Ben Reitzes said the move to offer iPhone through Best Buy is likely to see Apple hugely surpass previous sales predictions.

"We believe our estimate of 3.8 million iPhones sold in Apple’s [September quarter] is very conservative," he said. Citing strong international demand, the analyst predicts 8.3 million iPhones could be sold in the December quarter, with 12.1 million iPhone 3Gs set for sale this year. The analyst also warned the 24.2 million iPhone sales Lehman Bros. had previously estimated for 2009 could be conservative.

Apple’s iPhone sales may take a 0.2 million boost, though, should HSBC bank follow-up on its recently revealed plot to possibly deploy iPhones across its international staff.

And, with iPhone sales growth continuing to propel interest in the smartphone market, its extremely likely any move by HSBC to take on the Apple mobile will shake main competitor in the category, RIM, and will also attract more corporate sales.

In a final flourish, Apple’s constant iTunes expansion continues, with film and television shows now made available in both the Australian and New Zealand markets, and storefronts open or opening in all iPhone territories, Apple clearly has more leverage to use to massage any weakness in sales.

In related news, Apple’s iTunes team is involved in a new syndicated US radio show, which will likely make its music and entertainment brand ubiquitous, even among non-tech-savvy radio listeners…

This story goes on.

 Apple’s Mobile Me fracas caused "hundreds" of Mac users to fall prey to a phishing scam, tricked into handing over valuable personal information by spoof mail and a well-crafted site.

Data obtained by CardCops, a credit card protection service owned by the Affinion Group, shows several hundred .Mac member’s data being traded in underground markets frequented by identity thieves. Details on sale are alleged to have included social security numbers, birth dates, mothers’ maiden names, credit card numbers and more.

The information was obtained through a phishing scam, using emails that circulated when Apple began its disastrous transition from Mac.com to Me.com. The scams bore subjects such as "Billing problem", The Register explains.

In a classic move, clicking the link contained within that email took .Mac members to a (fairly) authentic page which claimed to belong to Apple and requested a host of details of a site visitor. With more than customary confusion among Mac users as Apple migrated its services to Mobile Me, it appears many who would otherwise have detected the problem fell for the scam.

iTunes users in Australia and New Zealand can now select from over 700 films for purchase and rental through the service.

Apple has made movies from major film studios including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), Sony Pictures Television International and Lionsgate are available through iTunes in Australia and in New Zealand.

New release titles are available for purchase on the same day as their DVD release, including favorites such as “National Treasure 2,” “Jumper,” “27 Dresses,” “Cloverfield,” “Vantage Point” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.” Over 100 titles are available in high definition.

“Movie fans in Australia and New Zealand can choose from a great selection of over 700 films for purchase and rent on the iTunes Store,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services. “iTunes provides an incredibly easy and fun way for people to discover and enjoy movies, and has quickly become the world’s most popular online movie store with customers renting and purchasing over 50,000 movies everyday.”

iTunes movies in Australia start at A$9.99 for catalog title purchases, A$17.99 for recent releases and A$24.99 for new releases. iTunes Movie Rentals are A$3.99 for library title rentals and A$5.99 for new releases, and high definition versions are priced at just one dollar more. 

iTunes movies in New Zealand start at NZ$9.99 for catalog title purchases, NZ$17.99 for recent releases and NZ$24.99 for new releases. iTunes Movie Rentals are NZ$4.99 for library title rentals and NZ$6.99 for new releases, and high definition versions are priced at just one dollar more. 

 Apple’s iPhone is taking a slice of the enterprise market, with news that huge multi-national banking giant HSBC is considering deploying maybe 200,000 of the Apple devices across its global workforce.

The move would be a slap across the face for the bank’s current mobile supplier, RIM, which supplies BlackBerry handsets to HSBC, ZDNet Australia informs.

"’We are actually reviewing iPhones from a HSBC Group perspective … and when I say that, I mean globally,’ HSBC’s Australia and New Zealand chief information officer Brenton Hush reportedly said

HSBC has 300,000 staff internationally – if the bank chose to standardise around the Apple mobile, the move would instantly become one of the world’s largest iPhone orders, and would significantly boost Apple’s bid for a space at the infrastructure table in the enterprise markets.

What we’re waiting to find out now is if HSBC makes this decision – and if other Fortune 500 firms known to be testing the device follow suit: Fox Interactive Media, Walt Disney Co., the US Army and Genentech Inc.