Can iTunes fix online movie rental?
For a customer intent on renting rather than owning movies, visiting a store full of empty shelves and scratched DVDs is an exercise in frustration. Downloading movies on a rental basis could potentially solve the problem, if a service could do it right. iTunes has already mastered the art of selling music. If reports of a rental service pan out, does it have the power to kick the whole field into gear?
For Apple fans, the keynote speech at Macworld is like a movie they've been waiting to see for months. Then the media comes in and gives away the supposed ending. What, doesn't anyone like surprises?
First, the Financial Times reported that Apple has been in deals with Twentieth Century Fox to bring the film studio's movies to iTunes and offer them as rentals, a partnership that may figure in 15 January's keynote.
Then Business Week reported Apple is trying to strike similar deals with other major studios. Not all those deals may be finalized in time for a Macworld announcement, though.
Renting movie downloads isn't exactly brand new. Services for doing so already exist, but none take full advantage of the concept's potential. They're too limited, too clunky, too inflexible. That's not to say they'll never get better, but it might take a download vendor as big as iTunes to raise the bar.
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