Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Netflix-Style Rentals Coming from Apple iTunes?

by Tim Stevens on September 10, 2007 at 11:15 AM

iTunes Message Hints at Netflix-Style Rentals?

It seems Apple's iTunes bug-reporting system has spoiled one of Steve Jobs' surprises. On the iTunes error reporting site, you're asked to select from a long list of problems. One of them says "DidNotReceive-RentalMovie," a somewhat clear indicator that iTunes movie rentals are on the way. Whether this confirms you'll be able to get some Netflix-style rental action directly from iTunes in the near future, however, remains to be seen.

If an iTunes movie rental store does prove to be the case, it will add a third player into an already nasty battle between the direct-mail rental shops Netflix and Blockbuster, a war that has resulted in price cuts, new features, and other attempts to woo customers from one to the other. If Apple were to enter the fight, we can't imagine the incentives all three would start throwing about, but we're guessing they'd be quite tasty. This means we, the movie-loving public, will benefit for at least a few months.

At worst, Mac users will finally be able to rent movies online, and this seems like a natural extension of Apple TV.

This rumor was reported last week and confirmed by Engadget over the weekend, by the way.

From fosfor gadgets and Engadget

Related Links:

Tags: Blockbuster, breaking+news, itunes, Netflix, top

Comments

1

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular