iMovie to Receive Update and Move Online?

In a Computerworld blog entry, Seth Weintraub of 9to5Mac follows up on yesterday's rumor of iWork becoming a suite of web-based applications with a new report regarding a similar update to iMovie due at Macworld next week.

Weintraub specifically points to several benefits of integrating iMovie into MobileMe's "cloud":

iMovie in the Cloud would also offer users the ability to easily view their movies on iPod Touches or iPhones. If the application is entirely Web based, it means that potential customers include the "other 90%" of users who use Windows.

The release of iMovie '08 in August 2007 received a number of complaints that ultimately resulted in Apple offering purchasers of iLife '08 the ability to download the previous version, iMovie HD 6, free of charge.

Weintraub seems uncertain if this move means that iMovie (or iWork) will become a web application only or if the "cloud" component is simply an add-on to the native Mac versions. From a practical standpoint, it would seem that for high definition video, the Mac version would remain as it currently is.