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The "showtime" mystery is over. As analysts expected, Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) special event in San Francisco Tuesday saw the launch of full-length movie downloads -- and more.
Apple hyped the announcement last week by sending technology journalists and Wall Street analysts a mysterious e-mail 
that displayed movie lights shining on the Apple logo, along with an invitation to the special event.
"In less than one year we've grown from offering just five TV shows to offering over 220 TV shows, and we hope to do the same with movies," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. "iTunes is selling over one million videos a week, and we hope to match this with movies in less than a year."
Disney, Pixar Offerings
The latest version of the firm's online music store, iTunes 7, offers the new album and Cover Flow views of music, TV shows and movies to let users find titles in their library more quickly. Now, those titles will include over 75 movies from Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films for customers.
Customers can purchase new releases for US$12.99 on a pre-order basis or $14 thereafter for near-DVD quality films. Library titles will sell for $9.99. Library titles include "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," "Shakespeare in Love," "The Princess Diaries," "The Incredibles," "National Treasure," "Toy Story," "The Rock" and "The Rookie."
The iTunes store now also offers downloads of popular video games for fifth-generation iPods, including "Tetris," "Mahjong" and "Mini Golf" from Electronic Arts; "Pac-Man" from Namco Networks America; "Cubis 2" from FreshGames; "Bejeweled" and "Zuma" from PopCap Games; and "Texas Hold'em" and "Vortex" developed by Apple, all available beginning today for $4.99 each.
Brighter Display
Apple also introduced three new iPods in time for the holidays. The new, aluminum-bodied iPod nano offers 24 hours of battery life and more than twice the music capacity for the same price -- $149 -- as the previous generation.
Apple also unveiled new accessories designed for the new iPod nano, including lanyard headphones, an armband, a dock and a new compact USB power adapter which, at almost half the size of the previous USB power adapter, is well-suited for charging an iPod while traveling.
The new iPod shuffle is nearly half the size of the original and features a new aluminum design as well. It contains one gigabyte of memory to hold up to 240 songs and costs $79.
The new standard iPod features a 60 percent brighter, 2.5-inch color display for watching TV shows and movies. The 30 GB model sells for $240, and an 80 GB model that holds up to 20,000 songs or 100 hours of video sells for $349.
Sneak Preview of iTV
The most significant news out of Apple at the event, according to Inside Digital Media Senior Analyst Phil Leigh, was its mention of its upcoming iTV device. The compact gadget will allow consumers to watch movies purchased online, as well as other digital content stored on a computer, on a connected TV set. It will sell for $299 and be available early next year -- after this year's holiday shopping season is over.
"I would speculate that one of the reasons for making the announcement now is to encourage consumers to wait," Leigh told MacNewsWorld.
"If another company, call it brand X out of Redmond, Wash., introduces a competitive device between now and Christmas, the announcement that Apple made today might encourage consumers to defer a decision about buying brand X until next year when they get to see the Apple device."
In Brand X, Leigh is referring, of course, to Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) recently announced Zune. If the Zune has an iTV-like function, Apple's pre-announcement could cause it to receive a lukewarm welcome, Leigh noted.
Apple's strategy appears to be one taken out of Microsoft's playbook, he said. That firm makes pre-announcements to encourage consumers to wait for its products rather than buying an available competing brand.
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