itunes

A new report from research firm IHS suggests that Apple’s iTunes share of “consumer spending for movie electronic sell-through (EST) and Internet video on demand (iVOD)” grew during the first half of 2011, the first time since 2009, despite an increase in competition from Walmart and Amazon. iTunes had a 65.8% market share during the first half of this year, up from 64.9% during the first half of 2010. It also had the largest increase in revenue growth among its competitors. “Much of iTunes’ success can be traced to the rising usage of Apple’s AirPlay system, which allows wireless video streaming to consumer electronic devices including televisions,” said IHS research director Arash Amel. “This has expanded the reach of iTunes to new platforms, boosting sales of movies from the system.” Microsoft’s Zune Video Marketplace maintained the second largest share of consumer spending in the market with a 16.2% share, down from 18.5% during the first half of 2010. Walmart’s Vudu service saw the largest share increase among market leaders: it jumped from a 1% share during the first half of last year to a 5.3% share during the first half of 2011. Sony’s PlayStation Store now has a 4.4% share, down from 8.2%, and Amazon’s share grew slightly from to 4% from 4.2%. Read on for the full report. More →