Netflix to offer iPad app for streaming video. Ready to buy one now?

[Update: The app is definitely in the App Store now. Check out the screengrab below from my version of iTunes. Link here]

A few weeks ago I floated the idea that the iPad could supplant a TV as the primary video-watching device in the bedroom. That possibility appears more likely now that Netflix is apparently going to release an app for the iPad that allows for instant streaming of videos from its Watch Instantly catalog. (As far as I can tell, this is not an April Fools' hoax.)

The app is free, but of course, you already need to be a Netflix subscriber with an unlimited subscription option in order to use it. You won't be able to view more than a fraction of Netflix's current catalog—including new releases—but if you're a film buff, there should be plenty of choices when you're ready to hit the hay.

This news follows ABC and CBS hustling to get themselves ready for the Saturday launch (ABC, in fact, releasing its own app) and Apple hoping for TV and movie-viewing increases via its iTunes hegemony. And Hulu is considering its own iPad app, though it may be subscription-based like the Netflix app. The tablet won't be replacing live TV anytime soon, and it's 9.7-inch, non-widescreen display may not be the ideal movie-watching platform, but it's quickly making its lack of a built-in DVD player a nonissue.

[Via Gizmodo]