14 DAY TRIAL // iTunes movie rentals have been the subject of much speculation over the years, and while there are countless reports on the subject, there has been little factual indication that Apple is preparing something of this sort.
Clues of Apple's secret plans often come from the most surprising of places, as in the case of iTunes movie rentals. While trying to report an iTunes problem, a user stumbled upon a clear indication of Apple plans. Surprisingly enough, the iTunes feedback/refund reporting system had multiple options related to rented movies. The specific issues listed in the refund request menu include not having received the rented movie, accidental purchase of a rentable movie, content quality, duplicate versions, wrong versions and bad metadata. The pop-up menu containing the aforementioned issues could have been accessed by anyone reporting a problem via iTunes, their presence clearly being an oversight from Apple. The presence of the options was verified by multiple sources, but as of Saturday afternoon the system went down. No doubt someone at Apple finally caught wind of the inadvertent leak and the options are being taken down.
While this may be seen as an indication of movie rentals being imminent, this need not be the case. Other such discoveries have been made in the past and either ended up being nothing or took a long time to materialize. The most recent example is that of ringtones, which were known to be on the way from screenshots of the iTunes interface for many months before the option actually became available. Whether or not a movie rental service from iTunes is around the corner, the frequency with which this rumor keeps resurfacing is a good indication that this is a service that customers want and are excited about. Unfortunately, with the way video content providers are fighting Apple over issues such as variable pricing it might still be a long while before it comes to pass.