By Back in August Netflix said that it would be “stupid of us” to ignore Android’s growth. And that was pretty much the last we heard of it. iOS has it and even WP7 has it, which has ruffled more than a few feathers. Fortunately, we haven’t been forgotten; or at least that’s what they want us to think.
In a blog post by Greg Peters:
We regard Android as an exciting technology that drives a range of great devices that our members could use to instantly watch TV shows and movies from Netflix. We are eager to launch on these devices and are disappointed that we haven’t been able to do so already.
He goes on to say that the reason behind the delay is:
a lack of a generic and complete platform security and content protection mechanism available for Android. The same security issues that have led to piracy concerns on the Android platform have made it difficult for us to secure a common Digital Rights Management (DRM) system on these devices.
However, he does vow that Netflix will be launching their app for “select Android devices” early in 2011. Fingers crossed that it will make its way to all handsets soon!
[via Talk Android | Full Netflix blog post]
What a crock of shit.
I don’t know why Netflix (or any mobile content provider) cares about DRM on phones/internet devices anymore, since anyone remotely motivated can download just about any movie they want.
Why would I bother trying to steal a movie through my phone when I can get it through Bit Torrent in a matter of minutes and watch it on my TV? Must part of their deal with studios etc…
Seriously? Early in 2011?
Thankfully we have some awesome independent Adobe AIR developers out there in the Android community. Check out the app entitled Queue Manager by UnitedMindset – a free netflix app for those of us tired of waiting for Netflix. It can be found in the Android Market.
Why not just create a user name system? and with that system allow those users to access a server or what not? like yeah the app can be stolen but if they make it like sirius radio for android its pretty much the same thing.
Security is such an easy fix.
Is it really that hard? I mean, piracy is about as much of an issue as it is on a PC. Is there some type of worry about people recording the content (no different than PC still), or what?
Sounds like androids system makes it a bit more difficult. But considering how astoundingly ubiquitous android continues to prove itself, this is pitiful.
SUCH BULLSPIT!
Netflix’ = Netflix’s. I’m not sure watching movies on my phone is something worth paying for. I watch sprint tv, and flash content tv shows on my EVO. I have to put it down aftera while. No way I want to stare at this screen for 2+ hours to watch a movie. They can keep it. I for one do not care for it. Just a novelty, that’s all.
Same reason ubuntu can’t stream netflix…
More than a novelty to me. I like to watch a bit of a movie in bed while I fall asleep. I find myself running a lot of errands with the wife, definitely handy when those yet boring. And I am willing to bet people who spend time on the bus or subway have a use for Netflix. I have a friend that watches stuff at work he uses blockbuster though. I’m getting tired of android in general— we are hit with constant updates about androids ever expanding market share, rumored new devices and rumored apps, Dolores updates to fix bugs, rumored firmware updates: meanwhile I’m sitting here with my stupid vibrant waiting for frpyo with few if any details, I also have my nexus in anticipation of gingerbread, but neither of those are here, one is definitely late and the carrier, Google, and the manufacturer find information about the upcoming updates to be the most sacred of secrets as though giving us honest updates will compromise the future of their businesses. And now we are still waiting for apps like Netflix that we should’ve had ages ago. Frankly, I’ve seen monkey shit fights more organized than this. At least with my iPhone I knew where I stood, bugs were rare, and phone manufacturers weren’t constantly trying to one up another by increasing one valued spec or feature while neglecting another in order to hold something back for the next update. With apple, you just upgrade once a year and that phone will be as good as any for the entire year. Its maniacal here I have the nexus and the vibrant, the vibrant is bigger but doesn’t have a camera flash OR dual mics which an absolute necessity for those who aren’t famoar. The vibrant has better processor and display but my nexus has more stable software with obviously better software support/attention paid to it. My vibrants GPS barely works which is an ineffably huge part of the devices appeal. I like android, I like a 4″ screen I like adobe flash and tethering and having a customizable desktop. Bit I miss the stable, reliable and informative apple iPhone institution. It was just easier, it just worked. Not SD card errors no need to pull the battery. Imagine if we couldn’t pull our battery…even unrooted phone would be sent in constantly. Apple is so confident in their software and hardware that u can’t remove anything. I’ve had to pull both my SD card and battery several times with all 4 androids I’ve had, and all while stock. And android is no longer a spring chicken, it should be more stable and reliable, it is disconcerting to say the least…
BS…Sony has an app called Crackle then you have BitBop which is in beta stages. These apps streams movies and they don’t have security problems.
@rich Its intuition, not institution, you dumbass troll
Rich is an itard. Piss off.
Just a few things. You should not buy a phone, if you can’t enjoy it today. There will always be new hardware and software on the horizon. Google gave us many things in 1.0-2.2 in a year’s time that it took apple 3 years to do. Yet, there are still things missing in ios. If you want speedy updates and good hardware, you should know better than to buy Samsung. But, as I said, enjoy what you have now. Updates are nice, but usually only bring incremental changes. As far as battery pulling….never had to do that on my EVO. But, it is nice that we have that option. iphones have the same issues and you have to wait until you are at a compyter to hook it into itunes to fix it. You can pull a battery anywhere and be done. If you don’t like what you have now, go be an iclone. It’s much better on this side. I could say more, but you get the jist.
Did Steve Jobs by Netflix? From the sound of their response it sure sounds like it.
Apple Speak!
MSF
(I want gapless playback for gods sake)
Sounds like same response used to get from motorola for updates on my org droid. Early part, turns out like a year later, Fail!
A lot of talk about a useless app., if you have no life get Netflix. Or write a half page comment.
My Vibrant GPS works very well, now with the update. The radio is better too, so I have very good connections on phone calls.
Sounds like Rich is a whiner, and doesn’t realize his update was a huge improvement; or rather just wants to complain still.
Seriously, who cares? I can already watch whatever I want on my phone. I don’t need a 5000 word essay like the whine tard above.
I have netflix on my htpc. We’re not really missing much by not having it on the phone…
I hate that Netflix isn’t on Android yet and I don’t even have a Netflix account. I’m a movie collector so I actually enjoy having physical copies of them, but I told myself that once Android gets a Netflix app I’ll start a Netflix account, mainly to keep up with shows I don’t have time to watch and movies I wouldn’t buy.
At least it’s coming… and hopefully better than iOS and WP7 because they sucked and crash quite often. I just hope when they say “select devices” it doesn’t mean carrier locking, but devices with 2.2 and up? That seems possible, because it sounds to me like that.
Watching a full movie on your phone will kill the battery so unless you have it on a charger I see no point. It sure won’t be mobile. Before calling netflix comment about android security bullshit, have anyone stop to think that maybe they do have a point. And really, why is it when voice dissatisfaction with android they are a whinny crybaby. I have android, use palm,iphone and now wp7. All have merits but I agree with Rich at least with iphone u know what you getting, my experience with android compare with all the other, let just say it leaves a lot to be desire. I am having garbage info jammed down my throat here just like any other mac site i go to. Try to bring in another point of view and you can bet someone call you a whinner or fanboy. I understand this is a android website and the propaganda is strong here but it seem a lot that android being open doesn’t mean the people using it are open minded.
A current Android user I owned the G1, Droid, and now the Samsung Fascinate. Android is fragmented, there are many people still using 1st and 2nd Gen of Android devices running below 2.1. Android has not even bother countering the piracy because you can google an apk and download it to your phone without having to jailbrake i.e. root. When I had my G1 I downloaded a wallpaper app from the freaking market (the MARKET) that contained malware. Good thing I had barely had any personal info stored. The OS in its current state sucks admit it. And I love how the stupid fanboys whine about it making us Android users look even more bad.
It would be nice to output Netflix to TV from video out, hdmi or DLNA. Netflix would be very portable.
Im just gonna comment cause of ignorant rich up top. Lol you said apple updatea once a yr?? You guys have 1 minor update already and one coming 4.2 because of bugs on ios… who are you kidding??? Once a yr my ass.
you guys make me laugh all the time!
Mobilemp4.net/movies…… Works on dx! And netflix would be huge for someone like me.. I work twelve hour shifts from 6pm to 6am with nothing to do most of the night! So all the people saying its a useless app speak for yourself!
Netflix: Android too fragmented to reach all devices
Read more: http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/11/13/netflix.says.android.fragmentation.hurting.support/#ixzz15CeF8065
Android sucks, even the iphones from 4 years ago have had netflix for a while now. Keep waiting in the dark for apps at some point in the future! 1/3 of androiders have 2.2. What happened to the developers preferred OS? Sounds like developers are grudgingly making android apps.
And PS There’s no marketplace for android tablets? What a free competitive OS which suck limited software choices for consumers.
”
Greg Peters said in an update late Friday. Both iPhone and Windows Phone 7 versions were finished quickly, but Android doesn’t have the “generic and complete” copy protection needed to protect against stream ripping and keep deals with studios that wouldn’t allow it otherwise. Without it, Netflix has to develop support for devices one at a time and has had to delay its Android launch well past other platforms.
”
BahahahaHAHAAA, cough uncontrollably, ha..
i for one am excited to hear that they are definitively going to get an app out for android. I’ve seen it on iphone’s and it works great. i’m satisfied to hear that they are firm about getting that app out. wish it was better, but i’m still happy.
@Kevin:
Um Queue Manager doesn’t really do anything useful. Maybe you are not familiar with what the Netflix app does on the iPhone or WM7.
I’ve been waiting for this forever almost. I commute by train to work (almost 2 hour commute) so this would really help. However, if security is the real reason, then why did they release it on Google TV? Google TV is Android in the core. The Google TV apps were leaked a few weeks ago and they’re apk files. (Don’t get too excited, the leaked apps don’t work though, the ones that do are don’t display properly and the Netflix 1 has system files it requires).
So if Google TV runs Android but Netflix is available on that, I call BS on this excuse.
Is the DRM they’re worried about the ability to record the stream?
I think everyone is forgetting they have more then just movies I watch a fair amount of tv on netflix
Hulu proves you can have valid DRM on Linux (Android).
Netflix’s insistence on Silverlight is unfathomable even as the rest of Microsoft moves to HTML5!
@ Rich,let’s just say I understand where you are coming from as Apple products are always so much better, they never need bug fixes and just work. They would never have such problems as Antenna Gate…oops was that a problem with the phone that needed to be fixed…my mistake. Of course they never purposely hold things back, so they can either add it into the next version or maybe sell another device to make up for what they should have could have built into the main device…ie FM radio, tethering, multi-tasking. If I truly paid attention to Apple products I am sure I would have much more to talk about, but lets put reality into it when we talk about Android and Apple because Apple is far from perfect and I for one is sticking with Android.
They really have a skewed take on the original interview, you should google the story if you want the context. He was complaining about it and grudgingly adhering to google’s fragmentation problem. Netflix pointed out things google specifically denies. For being so ‘developer friendly’ android has 1/3rd the app developers apple has, and that small group considers it a pain according to netflix, a company made up of all developers pushing formore streaming.
Android is Linux, and Linux (Ubuntu) users have been groping for a Netflix solution for years. The thing is though, it’s not all Netflix’s fault. It comes down to this–Silverlight’s open source descendant, Moonlight, has been unable to get Microsoft to release Silverlight’s DRM components and has therefore been unable to port a complete application framework that would allow Netflix to work. Netflix has never really given a before, and so there’s been no real impetus to either bring closed source Silverlight to Linux or bring Moonlight up to snuff. I don’t see that changing either, because Silverlight for Linux would essentially level the playing field for Ubuntu. Search Ubuntuforums and see how many users are maintaining a Windows partition or virtual machine simply so they can watch Netflix.
Love netflix and am a current subscriber, but…
I hear RedBox is starting an online service next year and Blockbuster is doing more online – hopefully we will see android app’s from these guys as well.
Hey, if netflix doesn’t help us out – let someone else pick up the slack. I’ll drop netflix if i can find better service.
@ #1 ROFL KNIFE
funny, when I first got my ally, I was able to watch netflix just fine. I am a subscriber.
Then after the 1st update… no mas
I already pay for it and it shouldn’t matter to netflix
what device I am using to view it on.
imo…
I’m going to laugh if Hulu beats them to the punch, lol! If they did, thats what Netflix deserves for sitting on their *bleep* instead of jumping on top of it.