But Mr. Jobs, You Promised Movie Rentals on iTunes!

by Jarrett Martineau | March 3, 2008 at 11:47 pm | 297 views | add comment

It seems Apple far over-projected the number of movie titles they expected to have available for rental through iTunes by the end of February.

Instead of 1,000 titles, there are currently only...399. (Gasp!)

For other companies, falling short of this goal might be a little disappointing, but it would be a minor setback.

But for the millions of rabid Apple fanatics out there, the company's failure to deliver on a 2008 Macworld keynote promise is not only an egregious, offensive, and unforgiveable failure -- it is technological sacrilege.

For shame, Jobs! For shame!

When Steve Jobs announced

iTunes movie rentals, he assured all of those in attendance that

1,000 movies would be available by the end of February. While some believed his claim, others weren't quite sure how Jobs would pull it off and, now that February has come and gone, it looks like the detractors were right all along.

According to a report from

Macworld, the number of films currently available for download on Apple's rental service is just 399 and if all movies that can be purchased or rented are taken together, only 770 are displayed. To make matters worse, the company's

Apple TV device,

which it promised would be the hub for all rentals, offers only 351 movies at this time.

"iTunes Movie Rentals launches today and will offer over 1,000 titles by
the end of February, including over 100 titles in stunning high
definition video with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound which users can
rent directly from their widescreen TV using Apple TV," Apple

claimed in a January press release announcing the new service.