Courtesy of OSWeekly.com

(Column) - It's my belief that iTunes is one of the most influential applications that is bundled with OS X. Not only does it have a strong presence on the operating system side of things, but it also provides the gateway to connectivity with the iPod, and this allows us to take the desktop experience of music, videos, and podcasts on the road. When does one experience stop and the other begin? It's a hard thing to accurately describe in a seamlessly connected world, isn't it?

I think a lot of us had a sneaking suspicion that the Leopard preview at the WWDC would contain a nugget of solid gold information on the addition of an iTunes Movie Store, but alas, our hopeless hearts were left wanting more. To be honest, whenever they decide to publicly release the information doesn't really matter because we all know that it's coming. Speculation has been ripe about a movie rental service being integrated into iTunes, and now we're just patiently waiting to hear the news from the mother ship.

Recent developments have made the existence of such a service behind closed doors even more apparent. Come to find out, during a financial conference call, the President of Lions Gate Entertainment (who struck a digital delivery deal with Apple) said that iTunes movie downloads should see the light of day before the end of the year, and he also said that they know when Apple is planning on launching the capability. What a way to spill the beans, Mr. President. Since they know what Apple's timeframe looks like, then it really makes that whole "before the end of the year" thing seem a little more realistic, eh?

So, we have fairly concrete confirmation that an iTunes Movie Store is indeed coming, but it doesn't mean that it's not going to face any stiff competition. LGE isn't just solely in love with Apple - in fact, they've also signed deals with a few of the other more established movie distribution services, so it's not like downloading movies is anything new. Apple's popularity may help the company to steamroll over some of the lesser known companies, but it doesn't mean that they'll instantly succeed in every way.

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