Image via CrunchBase
Back in April, I wrote about how Wal-Mart's Vudu movies-on-demand service is giving Apple's iTunes a run for its money. While iTunes still dominates the online video rental business, Vudu surged at the end of last year.
Now Vudu is stepping up the competition even more. The company announced today that the service is now available on iPads. We predicted that this move would be like "Goliath handing David a shiny new slingshot."
This means that tablet users who want to rent movies can now price shop. Since Vudu is a Wal-Mart service, price is a big factor. As I wrote in my story on the company:
Vudu is in a good position to compete with Apple. Wal-Mart does $3.5 billion a year in DVD business with the Hollywood studios. That gives it serious leverage to promote Vudu in its DVD cases. When Toy Story 3 came out on DVD in November, Wal-Mart offered buyers a digital copy via Vudu. The retailing giant can also offer its usual low prices online. Vudu has a $2-for-2-nights deal on HD films and offers a daily 99-cent special on movies like Sony’s Easy A and Fox’s X-Men. (Apple also offers 99-cent rentals but on films you’ve never heard of like the comedy I Do & I Don’t.) Apple movies cost $3 to $5 for a 24-hour period. Within the year Vudu will be installed on almost all of the TVs and Blu-ray players sold at Wal-Mart.
Users who rent movies on Vudu using their iPads will also be able to watch the movies online or on Vudu connected devices like Sony's PlayStation.
