iTunes Glitch Suggests Movie Rentals for Apple

Many consider Apple to be a leading innovator, so finding out what's next on the company's plate can be quite salivating. Today, one user got a taste when an iTunes glitch revealed that renting movies may be next on the horizon.

"I was trying to report a problem via iTunes, and this pop-up for selecting a reason contains some interesting/revealing strings," said David Watanabe, the user who discovered the glitch. "[It] looks like 'RentalMovies' will be coming to the iTunes store."

When Watanabe was trying to notify the iTunes Store of his quandary, he was confronted with a menu of options on why he was reporting a problem. These options included "DidNotReceiveMovie-RentalMovie," "AccidentalPurchase-RentalMovie," "ContentQuality-RentalMovie," "DuplicatePurchase-RentalMovie," "WrongVErsion-RentalMovie," "BadMetadata-RentalMovie" and "Other-RentalMovie." (Source: appleinsider.com)

Rumors of Apple's venture into movie rentals are not totally new. The buzz began when the iTunes Store began selling movie downloads nearly two years ago; many saw movie rentals as a natural extension to Apple's download service.

This past June, London's Financial Times brought fuel to the fire by reporting that Apple would be releasing a video rental service this fall. In fact, the Financial Times had quoted a studio executive who asserted that the service would "compete against cable companies and anyone else offering VOD into the home." The report also delved into some details, suggesting both a price ($2.99) and a time limit (30 days) for rentals. (Source: engadget.com)

Apple has been a controversial corp in the past few years; it is certainly not rare for the company to appear in IT headlines, nor is it out of the ordinary to hear analysts and users discussing and projecting the company's next moves. And now, with the discovery of a revealing glitch on the company's website, it is pretty safe to say that Apple gossip will not be slowing down anytime soon.