Apple wants streaming movies on their devices

[idan]

Apple has begun negotiations with Hollywood studios to get their agreement of putting movies on cloud servers, and thus enabling Apple users to stream the movies bought through iTunes on iPads and iPhones. Apparently, Apple officials have been in meetings with studio representatives to finalize a contract that would allow consumers to play the movies bought through iTunes, just as they do with music, by streaming them on any Apple device, said The Los Angeles Times.

By placing the films into cloud servers, users wouldn’t have to download anything, and they’d only have to chose a movie, pay for it, and stream it on their devices. Talk comes as Apple has launched the iCloud product available for their devices. iCloud launched with iOS 5, Apple’s latest mobile operating system. With the new OS, the company is allowing iTunes customers to re-download all their purchased songs and TV shows on any of their devices.

Movie studios have also launched a cloud-based movie streaming service, called UltraViolet, which lets people see movies they have purchased on DVDs or Blu-ray. Even though movies can already be streamed on iPhones and iPads through the Flixster app available in Apple’s store, the UltraViolet account does not include movies that have been purchased through iTunes.

Apple officials have declined any comments to both Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal, the newspapers which have shared the news, and they have kept a mum towards Reuters as well. The service is rumored to be available for launch by the end of the year or early next year, according to Los Angeles Times.

By Radu Tyrsina
Source: Reuters

[Sponsors]