I’ve been using Netflix on my Windows Phone 7 devices and iPad while waiting for it to come to Android. I read over on This is my next that Netflix finally released the app for selected Android devices.
The Netflix blog states, “The Market download will initially be available only on select phones that currently have the requisite playback support.” However, when you look at the list of supported devices, there doesn’t seem to be any consistency or easily explainable reason why these selected devices are the only ones with requisite playback support. The Netflix app currently supports:
- HTC Incredible with Android 2.2
- HTC Nexus One with Android 2.2, 2.3
- HTC Evo 4G with Android 2.2
- HTC G2 with Android 2.2
- Samsung Nexus S with Android 2.3
- Samsung Nexus S 4G with Android 2.3
So we have four HTC devices with older Snapdragon processors and two with Samsung Hummingbird processors, the two Nexus pure Google phones. HTC Sense is not a commonality across the four HTC devices, carrier support is not a commonality, and the operating system is not a commonality, so what can there be about this odd mix of six devices that makes only them supportable? Are these the only Android smartphones they have in house to test or something?
It seems to me they wanted to test on a limited number of handsets at once so they rolled it out to just a few devices across the carriers and made sure to include the Google developer phones. Hopefully we will get this soon on the newest devices, like the HTC ThunderBolt, LG G2x, Samsung Epic, etc. Although other Android devices are not yet supported, you might want to check out XDA Developers for a version to try out.
Luckily, I still have a Nexus S 4G and was able to test out Netflix. It works just fine, like it does on my Windows Phone 7 devices. Netflix for Android works with 3G, 4G, or WiFi and lets you resume where you left off on your TV or other mobile device.
