iTunes was once the proud market leader in the on-demand video streaming industry. Recently, however, newer players have completely dismantled Apple’s reign in the market.
AppleInsider reports —
Facing increased competition from the likes of Amazon and Comcast, Apple’s once commanding market share lead in the online video sales and rental industry has been more than halved.
After already declining sales of the iPhone, this will surely be troubling Tim Cook a lot. While this is certainly bad news, industry experts claim that Apple shouldn’t be surprised that this has happened. That’s because they had been observing a decline for quite sone time now.
Not an overnight reversal of fortune.
According to Wall Street Journal, Apple’s misfortunes have been piling up for some time now. Amazon’s or Netflix’s rise to popularity has not been an overnight event, same is true for the decline in numbers for Apple.
“The company’s market share for renting and selling movies has been falling for several years, tumbling to between 20% to 35% from well over 50% [from] as recently as 2012.”
In the same time period, Amazon Prime has seen around 20% growth. Netflix, meanwhile, has gained newer heights in not just in US but outside as well, largely due to its high-quality original content.
Where do Prime and Netflix beat iTunes?
Both Amazon and Netflix have invested heavily in actually creating new content, and not just marketing content that already exists. That’s been a defining characteristic of Amazon and Netflix, that is sorely missing from Apple — creating content.
The on-demand video market seems to respond to original content much more strongly than anticipated. I am forced to say that Apple certainly missed a trick here. Of course, they tried — and are still trying — to create originial shows and films, but it will take a long time for Apple to catch up with Netflix and Amazon.
