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Episodes of "Friends," the sci-fi epic "Babylon 5," "The Jetsons" and "The Flintstones" are among the latest content from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group that Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has recently added to iTunes, its online music and video store.
Ever since Apple introduced its first video iPod late last year, the company has been adding TV shows and music videos to its iTunes catalog at a steady clip. It now has more than 150 TV shows available to consumers -- offerings that range from the very recent -- "Desperate Housewives" and "Law and Order SVU" -- to the quirky pilot episode of "Aquaman," the latest interpretation of DC Comics' Aquaman mythology.
Driving Sales Through Content
Driving sales 
of its products through digital content is one of Apple's most tried-and-true business strategies. Several years ago, the company made the iPod the world's No. 1 portable music device by offering users a large selection of downloadable songs for 99 US cents each. In February, Coldplay's "Speed of Sound" became the one-billionth song downloaded from the online music segment of the store. Alex Ostrovsky, the lucky customer, won a 20-inch Mac computer, 10 iPods and a $10,000 iTunes gift certificate.
Now Apple is trying to do with videos what it accomplished with music. Already, according to Cue, iTunes has sold some 35 million videos.
"Why mess with success?" asks Yankee Group analyst Mike Goodman. "It is obvious Apple is going to continue to improve its catalog [by] adding new pieces to it," he told MacNewsWorld.
Video Oriented
At the moment, Apple appears content to build out its collection with music videos and TV shows. It is clear, however, that the company is working toward offering full-length movies on iTunes -- either through a rental or to-own model -- in the near future.
"It's not a question of if -- it is a question of when," Goodman said. "It is [simply] a matter of Apple coming to an agreement with the movie studios over pricing and business rules."
When such an agreement is reached, Apple is likely to introduce a new iPod device, one that is designed primarily for playing movies and video. The current iPod is a music player that also happens to run videos, Goodman said. "Sooner or later, Apple is going to have to introduce a portable video player that happens to also play music." Such a device would need a larger screen than the current iPod, and it would have to feature longer battery life as well.
Additionally, Apple would need to revamp iTune's user interface.
"They will do it simply because there will be so much content, no one will be able to find everything they are looking for," Goodman said.
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