Disney CEO Bob Iger told the audience at the Digital Hollywood Media Summit today that that Disney has sold 4 million movies and 40 to 50 million videos through iTunes since signing up in 2006.
Peter Kafka at Silicon Alley Insider estimates that this equates to $122.8 million for Disney from Apple, then writes:
In other words, a little less than 10% of the $1 billion digital revenue goal Iger has laid out for his company this year — and a rounding error for a company that generated $35 billion in sales last year…The upside for Disney is that this is all incremental revenue, with zero marketing costs. So they’d rather have it than not. But another reminder that digital sales aren’t going to do much for Disney or any other the other large media congolomerates’ top and bottom lines for quite some time.
Fair call in that it’s a drop in the Disney sales ocean, but in talking down the figure it ignores the alternative, which is no revenue and increased piracy in a marketplace that is switching to digital content in large numbers. 40-50 million videos and 4 million movies sold in a marketplace that is conditioned to free/ piracy after 2 years is positive for Disney and the industry going forward, because that’s 50 million times some hasn’t downloaded the video or movie for free. The movie market itself has been stifled by DRM and poor quality video, but Apple’s move into HD and rentals should drive further growth in the legitimate download marketplace, such that these figures could easily double or even triple over the next 12 months. Huge revenue figures no: but growth at a time where DVD sales are now declining and Bluray has yet to fully establish itself in the broader market.
It should also be noted that Disney’s biggest shareholder is Steve Jobs; if they were making $1 in profit from iTunes they’d still likely be using the service.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
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The more we get away from traditional camera designs, with sleeker, smaller digital cameras, the more nostalgic I get about old film cameras. This miniature digital camera, the Rolleiflex MiniDigi AF5.0 from Komomura Corp., is modelled after the legendary twin lens Rolleiflex, which were everywhere a few decades ago, and are still sold today. The 5 megapixel retro camera is priced at 43,050 Japanese Yen (about $420).
Via Nikkei Weekly (subscription).
Posted by Hoyun
Category:cameras | novelty
Tags: retro
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Filed under: Laptops
In a recent interview, Asus CEO Jerry Shen talked up the company’s newest edition to the Eee family, and also dropped a few more details on the forthcoming laptop. Apparently, the new set of miniature PCs will carry SSDs as opposed to the flash memory we saw in previous iterations, with sizes ranging from 8GB in the XP-equipped model, up to 12GB or 20GB in the Linux versions — though it’s hard to say why the smaller-footprint Linux would need more drive space. Shen also revealed that there are tentative plans to release WiMAX and HSDPA-enabled models sometime in Q3 of 2008, and he confirmed that come May the company will trade up to Intel’s Diamondville (er, Atom) chips. In addition, more colors are on the way, and the base price in the US will be $499 at launch — though that figure is expected to drop in the following months.
[Via Eee Site]
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Filed under: Gaming
Sure, your games are thrilling and all, but they don’t exactly cause actual pain, do they? Well, that’s all going to change thanks to the two twisted dreamers who started the company Mindwire, and their electroshock feedback device, the V5. That’s right, next time you get fragged in Unreal, sacked in Madden, or robbed in GTA — you get shocked in real life. Just the sadistic thrill you’ve been after, right? The device works by splitting your controller input to the “brain” of the V5 and your console, then sends electric jolts via electrode pads on your skin. Right now the company has a model tested and working with the PS2, Xbox, GameCube, and PCs, though they appear to be making preparations for current gen consoles in the next iteration of the device. If you’re content with the choices at hand, this self-torture can be yours for £99.99 (or around $201). Check the totally awesome video after the break to see the V5 in action.
[Via Coolest Gadgets]
Continue reading The Mindwire V5 turns gaming into pure electroshock torture
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