Warner Brothers sells movies as apps, skirts iTunes
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 percent 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]
