Netflix shares jumped 1.6 points on Thursday as the company announced its long-awaited application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Netflix originally announced the app in April following the success of their iPad app.
The application is the first from Netflix that allows streaming directly to mobile devices, providing the company with a wide open market from which to recruit new customers. The announcement most likely came just in time with competitors like Hulu and Blockbuster working on their own versions of the app.
The application is available for free on the App Store, but requires a Netflix membership with streaming enabled to view content. Movies and Television shows available for instant viewing can be streamed to your device using either WiFi or 3g, and you can also use the app to manage your Netflix movie queues.
Netflix has already made streaming media available to a large variety of devices, including Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, PC and Mac, as well as many other internet enabled devices like TV's and Blu-Ray players. However, only a portion of the content they provide on DVD and Blu-Ray is actually available to view instantly.
Content creators still limit Netflix and other providers from having more than a small portion of their content available for streaming at any given time in order to make sure there is minimal impact on their DVD sales. After all, why buy the DVD box set of Mad Men for example when you can just stream the whole thing any time you like. However, as the medium that viewers use to consume video continues to move toward streaming and downloading, those same content creators are going to have to let go of that old style of thinking.
Recent developments like Netflix's new $1 Billion deal with premium movie streaming service Epix are a step in that direction. The deal will make movies from three major studios available to be watched instantly on Netflix only three months after their release on Epix.
Comments
YEEE-HAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.....
You actually can't manage your main queue through the Netflix app. Odd, because unofficial apps out there let you do just that. Hopefully they add that in.
Fantastic!!
I hope they will make one for droids as well. I would love to have the same chance as iphone users. I would have one but we have no at&t service here.
Well I love the app, but it buffers a lot. It stops frequently
(ah-hah! moment) so that's why I'll have movies in my 'view instantly' queue that are available one day, and not the next- they can only have so many on at a time...
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