Wait, hang on, calm down.  Take your Apple fanboy hat off for a moment and just hear me out.

First, I am a big iTunes, Apple TV, and iPhone user.  I am very much interested in an integrated, digital life.  I have gone through the many hours of ripping about 115 DVD’s to an Apple TV quality resolution.  My wife thought I was crazy, but now that all of our movies are quickly accessible on our HD TV, streamed from an “iTunes Server” of sorts, she never wants to go back.  Simplicity and instant gratification.

That is the future.  That is the fast track that we are on.  DVD’s will be going by the wayside, and even the Bluray/HD-DVD war is really not worth fighting about.  Pick a standard and go, because it is only going to live so long (and the companies on both sides of the battle know it.  Microsoft does not really care about HD-DVD, they care about creating a knock down, drag out fight that keeps the world in flux, until they perfect their next delivery system).  The future is digital delivery.  Not sub-DVD quality delivery, but DVD and higher.  This is the whole point of the Apple TV, and it is why Microsoft does the same thing with the XBOX 360.  People want to sit in their house, click a remote, and “boom” the content is there.

Why does this make the Fox “iTunes Digital Copy” on their DVD’s pointless?  Because it is a stop gap measure between today and the future.  Worse, it is a vendor specific (Apple) stop gap, that nobody else has bought into.  Frankly, why would they?  Movie studios have no vested interest in iTunes.  If they can have their way, the same content gets delivered to Apple, Microsoft, and anyone else willing to make a business out of digital delivery.  Furthermore, they are greedy.  Why give something away that they could make as an extra revenue stream? (Not saying this is right, just telling you reality).  Today, the studios see iTunes as a means for more income, not replacing DVD sales income.

Besides the studio issues, how many people will actually use this feature?  If I can choose between a DVD with an average resolution “iTunes” rip, or just buy an HD digital version, I am going to head that way, because it is fully integrated with my Apple TV, and looks a lot better. 

If a teenager with an iPod Touch can just order and download the movie direct from iTunes to their iPod, why would they go to Best Buy and buy the disc?  It’s about convenience.  Apple knows it, and it is how they have made a killing off of music.  They have struggled getting to this place with movies, but they may have found their way on this as well.

I will say this is interesting news.  It means that Fox is very interested in the future.  However, this announcement is purely PR, and Fox knows it.