You’re reading my mind, Apple …

So we’re a mixed household. Some Apple, some Windows, and a few Androids tucked away here and there.

Our digital data is similarly patched together: Some Amazon items, Google Play titles, and a lot of Apple TV content.

A recent announcement out of Cupertino really has me wondering if Apple is reading my mind.

When we see an interesting movie, we’re faced with a dilemma: rent it or buy it? Sometimes the prices are close enough that it’s a tough choice. Will we want to watch over and over again? Will we regret buying it? Will we pay almost double to rent it and then buy it?

Take, for example, the movie Beatriz at Dinner. Currently, it’s $5.99 to rent, and $9.99 to buy.

We could rent it, love it, then buy it for a total of $15.98.

We could buy it, love it, and spend $9.99.

We could buy it, hate it, and have “rented it” for $9.99 instead of $5.99.

Yeah, I know, #firstworldproblems .

But here’s where they’re starting to read my mind. I’ve always wanted Apple to let you treat the rental price as a “try it before you buy it” option.

For example: Rent a movie. Like it? Want to buy it? Great, here’s a discount equal to half (or all) the price of the rental. Simple enough.

My repair guys do this … there’s a $65 diagnostic fee to come out and check out my appliance (dishwasher doesn’t stop when unlocked). But that diagnostic fee is credited as a discount on the total repair once they fix it (if I have them fix it). My local car dealership just quoted me a $127 diagnostic fee on my hybrid … and they’ll discount the repair by that amount if they end up fixing whatever’s turning on the check engine light post-Irma.

Now, Apple is almost doing that. They’ve announced a 4K upgrade! The bonus is this: you don’t have to rebuy your movie library if you’ve been paying the slight premium that HD movies cost. You’ll get the 4K version for nearly free as these versions become available (you’d need to upgrade your Apple TV box).

I’d still like a rental “discount”, but it’s a seller’s market, and virtually “free” 4K is something they didn’t have to do. But maybe they remember the BlueRay vs HD wars, and decided it was something they did have to do. And I’m glad they did.