If you’re an Android-powered device user and have been jealous of all your iPhone and iPad using friends who get to watch Netflix content on their devices, be jealous no longer. Netflix finally announced that its Android application is now available and ready for you to download in the Android Market.
However, as great as that news is for Android users, there’s one thing that may dampen the excitement. The app is only supported on “select phones that have the requisite playback support.” All is not lost, however, as Netflix says it will add supported devices to its list over time.
As you probably already know, the video streaming service is currently available on Windows Phone and iOS devices, but what was the holdup for Android? “Because the platform has evolved so rapidly, there are some significant challenges associated with developing a streaming video application for this ecosystem,” Netflix product team member Roma De said.
“One of these challenges is the lack of standard streaming playback features that the Netflix application can use to gain penetration across all available Android phones. In the absence of standardization, we have to test each individual handset and launch only on those that can support playback.”
I guess that makes sense. See, Apple owning the entire widget and making developers adhere to a strict set of rules might not be a bad thing after all. At least iOS users get cool apps first, at least in most cases.
Netflix for Android currently runs on the HTC Incredible, Nexus One, and EVO 4G with Android 2.2 installed. It’s also supported on the Nexus S and Nexus One with Android 2.3 installed.
