While the design obviously encourages rentals. The business model has to somehow make AppleTV a convenience... and rentals are something the market has been screaming for since AppleTV was launched.
That said, I've heard that your LAN library will now appear consolidated, making it easier to navigate your entire selection regardless of which computer its on.
That's a net gain in my opinion. There will always be pushes for revenue streams but that doesn't mean you have to succumb to them.
I know some people are averse to rentals, but I'll tell you something... I started looking at our expenditures and realized we have well over 50 movies we have never watched, for which we probably paid an average price around say $15 (includes DVD releases). That's $750 down the drain on rapidly depreciating assets!
So we started curbing our habit of buying movies and started leveraging our Netflix account. It's not that we can't afford to waste money on movies... but it's still wasting money that could be better spent elsewhere.
One thing raised my interest... very few people seem to have made this observation in the media: Netflix's market capitalization is $1.7 billion.
Does anyone not notice how easily Apple could pay cash for them? And what Netflix shareholders would complain about having their stock converted to AAPL shares?
