iOS App Rentals In The Works?

style="text-align: left;">href="http://www.everythingicafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/original.png">class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-23946" title="original" src="http://www.everythingicafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/original.png" alt="" width="581" height="65" />Apparently today is the day for href="http://www.everythingicafe.com/report-iphone-5-to-be-sprint-exclusive/2011/10/03/">crazy rumors. href="http://thetecherra.com/2011/10/01/apple-to-allow-ios-app-rentals-soon/">The Tech Erra has reportedly found this string inside iTunes 10.5 beta 9, and it suggests that you might be able to rent iOS apps in the near future. Rent apps? What?

style="text-align: left;">There are two ways I could see this happening. One would be as a way of try-before-you-buy. Let’s say I’m looking for a really good app of a specific type, like how I was hunting for a decent white noise generator recently. Rentals would allow me to try out four or five of them and figure out which I like before dropping the money on one. The big question about this is how the pricing would work. $0.10 for a rental? $0.01?

style="text-align: left;">The other option I could see would be media apps for a limited time period. An MLB app that lasted for the baseball season at a fixed price, and then disappeared. An app that you can rent for a season of a TV show, or a year of magazines.

style="text-align: left;">This is still a pretty bizarre rumor, but it’s certainly interesting.