Amazon’s Unbox Launches – iTunes Finally Has A Real Competitor

Downloaded video is no longer a game for bleeding edge. Amazon launched Unbox a few minutes ago and … lots of cool stuff inside:

$1.99 credit for trying it out today. Get a free episode of television right now
$20 credit for buying certain devices. Apple, will you match?
Both iTunes and Apple offer Firefly – but only Amazon offers Office Space and V is for Vendetta (unless of course, they make some announcement next week).
Quoting here – “US customers only. You can keep purchased videos on 2 PCs and 2 portable video players at the same time.“
You can both rent and buy films. V is $13.87 to buy, $3.99 to rent. And, if you lost your purchase, you can download it from Amazon again. Apple, are you reading this?
Quality promised is “DVD Quality.” Tried to watch your Video iPod on your television, ever?
You can also transfer to certain “Plays for Sure” devices including: Creative Zen Vision: M, Creative Zen Vision, Toshiba Gigabeat S, Archos AV 500, Archos AV 700, iRiver PMC (Portable Media Center)

I’m sure the ‘Sphere will be all abuzz by the time I publish this.

I couldn’t be more thrilled. Apple needed a real competitor, and it sure wasn’t looking to be Microsoft.