Netflix Coming to Select Android devices next year, delay in service explained

There is no doubt about it, Netflix is the most popular movie distribution company in the United States. Offering up streaming of thousands of TV shows and movies and discs by mail it’s the ultimate choice for anyone who has even the smallest interest in movies. However, for some time now us Android users have been wondering where our streaming application is. It seems that wait may be over for some devices.

Netflix is available for Windows Phone 7 and iPhone/iPad but why not for Android? Greg Peters of Netflix product development took some time to explain why we haven’t seen Netflix on Android. The reasoning comes down to Android’s “lack of a generic and complete platform security and content protection mechanism.” He further explains:

“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. 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.”

Here comes the interesting bit: “we’ll launch select Android devices that will instantly stream from Netflix early next year,” and they plan on continuing to work with carriers and manufacturers to develop a better solution for the platform as a whole. Going to his statement regarding “select devices” and “early next year,” we are lead to believe that they may be waiting for a revised version of Android.

[Via AndroidCentral]