always been a great idea. At such a low price point, it spurs activity and undoubtedly showcases just how easy it is to rent a movie through iTunes. And now Apple is sweetening the pot even more by offering not one, but three $0.99 rentals of the week.
This week, As Good As It Gets, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Lethal Weapon are all a part of this deal. On a special page showcasing them, Apple also highlights other films that can be rented or bought for regular price. But this page is a little weird. The entire thing is off-center unlike any other page in iTunes. That makes me think that Apple, not one to typically skimp on aesthetics, threw it together at the last second.
And that could very well be the case. After all, Apple has been doing some experimentation with pricing for its deals on iTunes over the past several weeks. While the $0.99 movie rental of the week has been constant, other deals like $5 movies (for purchase) and TV shows under $10 have come and gone. Instead, now we have certain newer release movies for $5 off (and oddly, Semi-Pro is featured in the header, but not on the page) and $0.99 TV episodes.
This inconsistency is a bit frustrating. When I saw Apple doing the $5 movies for a few weeks in a row, I was excited each week to come back to the store and see what would be on sale. But then it stopped doing that -- and I haven't bought a movie on iTunes since.
In general, there's been weird stuff happening in iTunes. The iTunes Plus area disappeared from the main page for a while (perhaps an indicator of a change coming to the DRM-free area of iTunes) and movies have been popping in and out of existence on the service (thanks to some stupid TV distribution agreements).
Consistency in pricing; it's one of the things that helped the iTunes music store rise to power (and what the record labels are still trying to battle against), but the video section is all over the place. Let's hope this three-fold $0.99 movie rental of the week deal stays in place.