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A few lines of code apparently buried in the iTunes beta hint that Apple could be about to add the ability to rent apps on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, The Tech Erra reports.
The nuggets of code were unearthed by Twitter user @SonnyDickson, and contain lines such as, “Apps are automatically removed from your iTunes library at the end of the rental period”, “Do you want to start playing the app?” and “This app will be deleted from your computer”. These suggest rented apps will have expiration dates, just like movies you rent from iTunes.
App rental would seem a little weird, when so many apps on Apple’s App Store cost under a quid, and we can’t quite imagine how the pricing would work for apps that are free compared to more expensive apps such as the TomTom app, which costs £50.
Still, we can see it coming in handy if you’re only going to need an app for a moment. If you urgently need to translate something into Swahili for instance (perhaps your friend has been eaten by wildebeest during a safari gone awry), but you’re never likely to need to do so again, you could rent the English Swahili Translator with Voice app for less than its usual cost of £1.49.
The strings of code appear to be directly lifted from the iTunes Movie Rental service, TechCrunch points out, but with the word ‘app’ used in place of ‘movie’. It’s a little odd to have text asking the user to start ‘playing’ an app — unless it’s a game.
We’ll be keeping our ears open for news of iOS rentals this evening, when Apple is expected to launch the next iPhone. Keep your eyes trained to the site, and to our Facebook page and Twitter stream, for all the news as it happens.
