Vudu Slashes Prices
Jan 24th, 2008 | By James Lewin | Category: Digital Video Downloads, Internet TVVudu is slashing the price of its video-on-demand box.
Effective immediately, the Vudu is now $295, down from its original $399 asking price. Customers who’ve purchased the unit in the past 30 days can get a $100 movie credit by calling the company’s customer service line (888-554-VUDU).
This move is expected, given the growing strength of Apple’s Internet television offering, Apple TV, and the limitations of the Vudu platform.
When it was introduced, we called the Vudu dead on arrival:
There’s a tremendous amount of opportunity in the world of digital video. The video capabilities of the XBox 360 and Apple TV are far from ideal, and there’s plenty of room for innovation in this area.
Unless the Vudu can deliver innovation that leapfrogs the current capabilities of Microsoft and Apple’s offerings, though, it’s a device that’s dead on arrival.
Even at $295, the Vudu is still an expensive closed platform that lets you buy more stuff. With increased pressure coming from an upgraded Apple TV, Vudu needs to innovate fast to survive.
Lets see. The Vudu is 1080p the AppleTV is 720p. The Vudu lets you BUY and KEEP your HD movies, AppleTV only lets you RENT your movies. The Vudu has over 5000 movies, AppleTV will eventually have 1000. The Vudu has a 250 gig drive (1TB for the XL model) and the AppleTV has a max of 160 gig.
They both let you purchase TV shows, though AppleTV has more and lets you buy a season pass.
The have the same rental restrictions so call that a draw. The AppleTV beats the Vudu in media extender features, but I’ve been told that’s coming soon. The Vudu has a USB 2.0 port for external archiving of your purchased HD content as well.
The biggest thing the AppleTV has going for it is Steve Jobs and his hype machine. So in the end it many times doesn’t matter if a product is better, Jobs makes it seem like the Apple product is the best thing out there and the press willingly laps it up.
Vudu user – thanks for the feedback.
So – do you disagree that it’s an expensive closed platform that lets you buy more stuff?
Your comment about people being taken in by Steve Jobs’ hype machine suggests that you may not be aware of the fairly critical reception we and others have given it. It’s generally viewed as the best of a flawed bunch of devices.
I totally agree – it’s an expensive closed platform that lets you buy more stuff.
I disagree that the AppleTV is the best of a flawed bunch of devices. This is mainly from reviews of people who own both the AppleTV and the Vudu. The consensus from those who own both is that the AppleTV has a lot of serious problems (not that the Vudu is perfect, just overall better than the AppleTV). They praise it for it’s ability to play free content, but shuffling content around (40 gig drive on the original) and dealing with network latency is a problem. Vudu’s system of P2P networking ensures it’s HD content will be instant for most high-speed users – no matter what – AppleTV has to serve it’s content directly to the users, which is a big bottleneck.
I think Vudu’s biggest mistake currently is the fact that they announced the XL at CES and some HD releases. Had they dropped the price at CES, and announced the XL and the HD releases, then they’d have at least made some waves.
I have not seen your coverage of the AppleTV, but the general press I’ve seen and heard makes it appear as though Apple has once again invented an entirely new industry and there are no competitors. (Well, I do hear comparisons to the XBox, but I don’t think it’s really fair to compare a gaming system to the AppleTV)