Netflix finally delivers the mobile application for Android Honeycomb tablets, fulfilling the desires of a few million Android tablet owners.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) Oct. 19 made some die-hard Android
tablet users happy by porting a version of its application for Google's
Honeycomb operating system, the Android 3.x version the company
tailored expressly for tablets.
Android tablets such as the Motorola (NYSE:MMI) Xoom and
Samsung Galaxy Tab haven't sold as well as their rival Apple iPad, which is now
in the hands of more than 32 million users.
However, the few million or so Android
tablet owners have been pining for more applications than the 100 or so that
have been developed for the Honeycomb branch.
Netflix TV shows and movies, which
have
been available on all Android 2.2 Froyo and Android 2.3 Gingerbread smartphones since September, can now be viewed on
7-inch and 10-inch displays.
The app, which also brings Netflix capability to Canada
and Latin America, is free and may be downloaded from the Android Market.
Roma De, Netflix director of product management, noted: "I'm excited to
bring Netflix to even more Android devices. Netflix members now have even
greater flexibility in watching TV episodes and movies wherever and whenever
they want."
Netflix began rolling out on Android smartphones in May
but only on a handful of handsets.
De said at the time Android's rapid adoption
and evolution made it challenging to build a streaming video application
because there just isn't a digital rights management (DRM) standard for secure,
streaming playback that Netflix can adhere to for rolling out its application
to every Android phone.
However, that gap in availability, combined with the
large interest of users attempting to get the popular service running on their
Android device, created the perfect cover for the Trojan Android.Fakeneflic to
exploit, as developers tried to port pirated copies of the app to run on
handsets Netflix did not officially support.
The Android.Fakeneflic malware, classified as "very
low risk" by Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC), is a "text-book case of an
information-stealing Trojan that targets account information,"
said Symantec security engineer Irfan Asrar.
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