The 2-a-month Netflix plan is 4.99 IIRC. Compared to that, Apple's offer is about a buck more expensive.

The fastest turnaround you (maybe just me) can have with Netflix is 2 movies in a week: drop on Monday and receive on Wednesday then drop on Thursday and receive on Saturday. Doing that religiously for a month gets you 8 movies.
Netflix's "unlimited" plans give you:
- 1-at-a-time = 8 movies/mo = $ 8.99
- 2-at-a-time = 16 movies/mo = $13.99
- 3-at-a-time = 24 movies/mo = $16.99
- 4-at-a-time = 32 movies/mo = $23.99

Compare that with Apple:
- 8 movies/mo = $23.92
- 16 movies/mo = $47.84
- 24 movies/mo = $71.76
- 32 movies/mo = $95.68

Conclusion: Apple's offer, while interesting and welcomed is only of value for occasional movie watchers or for those that can't wait the 2-day turnaround time.

-J

They just tack this in on the off chance someone actually wants to use it. I would prefer to just buy the movie, but two of the movies I dl'ed I wouldn't of minded just renting. It's just adding in something extra, even if it bombs, Apple doesn't care.

I'm an occasional movie watcher, so the iTunes movies would be good for me. But I can see that people who watch more often would be better served by plans like Netflix.

Selection will also be important. I often want to watch older movies, which can be hard to come by from services that cater more to recent releases. What is available on iTunes will be just as important as cost.

...so like me. Unless I get a rental coupon, I rent less than 10 movies a year. Our grocery store recently put in a 99-cent/diem machine, and it has an okay selection, but I'm sure Apple's library would be much larger. So, provided the 30-day window isn't for just ONE play, $2.99 is pretty good which throws it back in with Unbox (which has major glitches in my experience)

In the US at least, Netflix also offers online movie rentals as part of your regular rental package - with every dollar of your monthly package fee giving you an hour of online movie access. Hence, in my (unlimited) 1 movie at a time package at $8.99 I get the equivalent number of hours available as movie downloads (technically this is more streaming than download but quality is perfectly satisfactory in standard def at least). One benefit of this - if you don't like what you're watching you only use up the time you watch, not the full length of the movie.
Other packages offer similar streaming approaches while others give you a full download. I see pros and cons for both approaches so it'll be interesting to see how Apple approaches this. I'm all for the little guy so hopefully the average consumer weighs up all the options rather than simply going with the name brand obvious choice without due consideration.
Personally, I think online movie rental models could still use some work though.

I have been using Netflix online movies since April and I have to say, the selection tends to be movies that nobody wants to see. Either old films or independent films or made-for-DVD titles. The only one I'm suprised to see there is Team America: World Police. With Apple's pull in the entertainment industry, I expect that they are going to do much better than the old films and B-movies that Netflix has available online. Until Apple launches it's online movies, I'll just go to Redbox while I wait for my Netflix movies to come in.