Despite Netflix’s CEO comments in a recent interview to Reuters, it is apparent that the online/rental primer distributor of movies in the US is planning to release a new service targeting, yes, you guessed correctly… millions of Iphone users.
Netflix is distributing among thousands of its subscribers an online survey (see below) to float the idea of a new streaming service, this time targeting Iphone users. If you are a Netflix subscriber, you can enjoy instant access to thousands of movies on their “instant access” service, allowing users to stream content directly from the company’s servers, using a PC or dedicated devices. Today this technology is based on Adobe Flash ®. This is not available to Apple oriented users (MAC, Iphone or IPad) and the survey indicates a willingness to part ways with Flash, a move being contemplated by many content providers, in order to facilitate streaming and other dynamic context to non Microsoft platforms.
The Iphone has been out in the market for a couple of years and it is the debut of the IPad that is prompting services and vendors to ramp up their offerings for the Apple platforms. I guess the Iphone service will be just a dress rehearsal for the real thing, Netflix streaming movie content to the IPad. Another indication that IPad is the real target, is that the service will initially work only on Wi-Fi and not on 3G, resembling the Apple offering on the lower end IPad platform.
March 5th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
I thought Netflix uses Silverlight for streaming media???
March 6th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
The new player use Silverlight, the older versions use Flash. By far, Flash is a more popular video “plug-in”