Android phone owners will soon get their own proprietary premium video streaming app.
Google’s online video rental service hasn’t made much of a splash, largely because of a bungled launch of an extreme lack of marketing. However, it may come to fruition on Android as the mobile platform has virtually no video rental apps.
Services like Hulu Plus and Netflix readily appear on the iPhone but even as they begin to roll out to Android, many are left in the dark.
So when is Google Video coming to Android? If last weekend is any indication, it should happen any day now. Over the 4th of July holiday break, an official app showed up in the Android Market.
However, Googlers working overtime over the weekend pulled it down before it made too much noise. And even those who managed to sneak the download in are unable to view access any video content.
Google promised in May that the app would be coming out soon. Unlike the aforementioned Hulu Plus and Netflix, users will have to pay for each movie or TV show they want to watch.
The upside is that it doesn’t require a monthly fee and content is generally made available at the same time or earlier as the content is released to home video. On the downside, the market for pay-per-view content is dwindling so it’s unclear how much of an impact this app will have.
Nevertheless, for Android owners who are hungry to watch the latest movies and TV shows on their phones, this will most definitely be a welcome advancement.
