On Monday I mentioned a study by ABI Research that suggested customers weren't ready for or interested in downloadable movies.  According to the study, they preferred existing forms of movie rental, like Blockbuster and Netflix.  But as Internet Retailer is reporting, Netflix thinks there might be a market for movie-watching on the computer.

In fact, the company will be rolling out a new download service by June that will give users the option of watching rented moves immediately over the Internet.

For right now, Netflix is concentrating on the computer.  While the company has plans to eventually make the service available to any device with any screen that has Internet access, the initial roll-out will only work with computers.  After a short download, users will be able to click a button and watch their movie within seconds.  The service will be included with each Netflix account at no additional charge.

As opposed to other movie services, like the one from Apple Computer, Netflix is approaching the online movie market from a rent rather than own perspective.  Apple sells movies through its iTunes Store that consumers can then watch on their computer whenever they want and as many times as they want.  The Netflix approach will give users a window of time or a limited number of hours in which to watch the "rented" movie.  That time window will vary from plan to plan.

It should be interesting to see where this goes.  As I said Monday, Apple has the potential make a real go of online movies with the Apple TV product that lets you beam purchased digital movies to your television.  Without a similar product, I don't know how successful this Netflix product will initially be.  But who knows.  I've been surprised before.

But let me ask you:  Do you want to watch movies on your computer?