A long wait to watch a movie

The media today are abuzz over an announcement by Apple's Steve Jobs that the company will soon start selling full-length movies through its iTunes Music Store. John Markoff and Laura M. Holson of the Times write:

Film executives have long been skeptical of Mr. Jobs’s move into the entertainment business, although music and TV executives have embraced the idea. The music industry was in the doldrums when Apple’s store was introduced in 2003, and executives saw it as an answer to the problems it faced with online piracy.

That sounds all well and good, but how long are people supposed to sit around waiting for the latest movie to download to their hard drives? Get this: "The movies ... will take several hours to download at standard broadband data rates."

Sounds like you could make five trips to Blockbuster during the time it takes you to buy one movie from Apple.

Apple's official announcement is posted on its "Hot News" page.