The day I have been waiting for might finally be close at hand, according to an article over at Techcrunch, a Netflix streaming app might be coming to the iPhone in the near future. They site an article on Multichannel that states fairly unequivocally that Netflix is planning on bringing their service to iPhones, iPod touches as well as the Nintendo Wii. this is all well and good, and lands into one of those “Why hasn’t this happened already?” categories along with a Hulu streaming app. The answer to the why is most likely tied up in a couple of concerns that Netflix will have to address before any app like this is going to find it’s way onto our iPhones.
Both Slingplayer and Skype, which use up copious amounts of network bandwidth with their video streaming services have been limited by Apple (most likely at the urging of AT&T) to using WiFi connections only to stream video content. This would make the streaming service useful only where you already had a WiFi connection, in which case you’d probably be around a computer, for which Netflix already has a streaming solution.
This isn’t even considering the fact that, as Techcrunch points out, Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, has a position on Microsofts board of directors. Having netflix as an Xbox exclusive with regard to consoles is no doubt a large factor in Microsofts plan to make the Xbox the central media hub for the home that they have been hoping to make it since the WebTV.
I would love to see Netflix Play Now on the iPhone as I use it to watch a lot of great older or independent flicks, but i don’t know if I see this coming to a reality without some serious gymnastics on the part of Netflix. Especially considering that apple does offer rentals and movie purchases already and plan to get even more aggressive in the media streaming market with the introduction of the rumored tablet device.
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