Apple's iTunes Music Store, which everyone and their mother knows will start selling videos of some kind later today, is currently offline – most likely to relaunch in two hours or so, after Steve Jobs unveils the new version. The popup message within iTunes ("It's Showtime") backs up the video rumors, although it remains to be seen whether Apple will unveil a video iPod, some sort of living room networked video player, or both.
Jobs has said before that people want to own music and rent movies. Leaving aside the question of whether anyone can ever truly own a DRM-ed file for the moment, this statement makes me wonder whether some sort of subscription-based plan will be an option, as well as the $15 for new movies and $10 for older movies pricing plan that people are already predicting.
If Apple releases a new iPod with subscription time-out capabilities for video, I wonder whether it'll add music subscriptions too, since the technology required would be similar. With the soon-to-be-released Microsoft Zune and Sirius Stilleto 100 packing Wi-Fi connections that enable on-device browsing and computer-free subscription fulfillment, the time could be right for Apple to make a move in that direction. Or not. We'll find out later today.
Update: You can (try to) watch the event live here.
