CNet News.com reports that Apple may be negotiating with movie studios to offer movie downloads via the iTunes Music Store as early as this year. The report says that currently the biggest hurdle is pricing. Good ol’ Steve wants a flat fee of US$9.99, but the (greedy) movie studios apparently want a variable pricing structure so that they can charge more for new movies.

I wonder if they will offer the movies in 320×240 resolution? I’m not sure I would pay the same price for a movie ticket for a video at that resolution. Bandwidth remains an issue but I suppose the rumoured built-in bitTorrent client for the next version of OS X can help with that.

Whatever the decision, it’s not like Malaysians will get to enjoy the content in the ITMS. Not till we get our own Malaysian store anyway.

Here’s the original article that started it all.