Patent diagrams indicate that an iPhone firmware update could allow users to access their iTunes libraries through a wireless data network- either 3G or Wi-Fi. Apple’s motivations for including such a feature is that accessing media through a client- instead of having to download each song or movie- is much quicker and more convenient, especially while traveling without a PC. iTunes could theoretically have an option to only sync the metadata of a file- only the file’s attributes- allowing the iPhone to request the actual file from the host system at a later date.

The biggest advantage of this is, obviously, near-unlimited storage space. The disadvantages are numerous, however- lower battery life, inability to access content while on an airplane or network “dead zone”, and lower streaming quality.

Via- AppleInsider.com