AOL has essentially just joined MovieLink and CinemaNow… i.e. floundering. They haven’t gotten anything special. I stand by my statements, and no, they are not rumor.

Why would I have to point out Guba? The author mentions Guba and didn’t refer to Guba in the statement I am challenging. Duh.

And why do I care about your opinion of Amazon? I barely mentioned them and don’t care what you think of them.

Hell, the story still requires an “update” because the author failed to check whether or not the deal was actually better.

My thesis: it’s absurd to claim AOL just got a big jump on the competition. It’s absurd to think their situation is better than the already floundering existing competition. It is absurd to claim that Amazon and Apple haven’t begun just because they haven’t announced anything or opened a service. That is all. Simple and pretty much undeniable.

I think what happens in the market remains to be seen. I think Apple is going to do well, and will make money off the hardware and perhaps from the downloads as well. In the Windows world it is going to get very competitive.

We wrote that earlier this week, when Guba announced its price cuts. No I don’t buy Amazon is going to win just because they are Amazon. They were supposed to dominate the music download business – well we all know how that has turned out.

Your guest writers are getting really weak, Om. Really weak.

Amazon and Apple have crossed the starting line, they just haven’t announced anything. It’s known that Apple has several deals already lined up. All AOL did was quietly launch a service prematurely with zero advertising.

When Apple’s ready, they will LAP AOL with hardware, the service, a big announcement, and advertising. And most people will not even know that AOL has a service.

I’d prefer a $20 a month, unlimited rental package.

Market remains wide open for Apple.