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Netflix Spotted on Android Device, Doesn’t Mean Yours Will Get It

A Netflix app for Android was spotted at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which wrapped up yesterday. Verizon, showing off its new LG Revolution 4G phone with Android, showed evidence that the ...
Netflix Spotted on Android Device, Doesn’t Mean Yours Will Get It
Written by Chris Crum
  • A Netflix app for Android was spotted at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which wrapped up yesterday. Verizon, showing off its new LG Revolution 4G phone with Android, showed evidence that the app is indeed in existence. 

    Android users have been waiting for a Netflix app for quite some time, and have had to wait idly by while apps for the iPhone, iPad, and even Windows Phone 7 were released. UnwiredView.com posted the following video of the demo, which is now making the rounds: 
     

    Unfortunately, we don’t really get to see the Netflix app in action, but can see clearly that it does in fact exist. "Netflix – preinstalled. Imagine, Netflix coming to you in 4G. That’s goin to be fantastic. You’re not going to have to worry about much buffering speeds anymore," the person showing off the phone says. 

    Greg Peters from Netflix product development explained why it has taken so long for Netflix to bring its service to Android a couple months ago. "The hurdle has been the lack of a generic and complete platform security and content protection mechanism available for Android," he said. "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."

    "Setting aside the debate around the value of content protection and DRM, they are requirements we must fulfill in order to obtain content from major studios for our subscribers to enjoy," Peters added. "Although we don’t have a common platform security mechanism and DRM, we are able to work with individual handset manufacturers to add content protection to their devices. Unfortunately, this is a much slower approach and leads to a fragmented experience on Android, in which some handsets will have access to Netflix and others won’t. This clearly is not the preferred solution, and we regret the confusion it might create for consumers. However, we believe that providing the service for some Android device owners is better than denying it to everyone."

    In other words, don’t take this video to necessarily mean that you’re about to get Netflix on your own Android device.

     

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