Apple Working On Movie Downloads Directly To iPhone: Report

Some screen shots seen recently for an iPhone application offer hints at a new feature that could be headed to the iPhone: Direct downloads of movies and television shows.It is nice that the iPhone can download music from the iTunes Music Store directly to the handset. Video is a different story. AT&T would probably want to strangle Apple if it made full-length movies available for download. Well, it appears as though Apple may be doing just that.

This information comes from a screen shot of an ad that was served as part of a test application, so consider that your fair warning that this could be bunk.

Clicking on one of these ads, which touted "iTunes Movies," "iTunes Movie Rentals" and "iTunes TV," took users to a mobile iTunes client. AppleInsider reports that the client "shows what appears to be a work-in-progress video section of Apple's mobile store. Viewers can browse genres and see featured items, but tapping the actual videos themselves produces a notice that the content is 'not available.'"

Could this be a new reality? Sure, it could. It would also be a nice one, though I seriously doubt AT&T would be a party to it. The more realistic situation is that movie and/or TV show downloads would require Wi-Fi to work.

Perhaps Apple will confirm this capability come the WWDC keynote on June 8.