Thanks to the newly-updated Android Market and Videos app you can now watch movie rentals on your smartphone. Assuming it’s not really old and assuming also that you’d actually want to. Personally, I wouldn’t.
Mobile Video
is a growing sector, with the number of people owning mobile devices capable of displaying video in high quality lurching ever upwards. As we all carry our smartphones with us pretty much everywhere we go content is needed to fill the gaps between taking calls and sending texts.
The question is whether anyone wants to actually watch movies or television shows on a screen that’s barely even a few inches in diameter? Google obviously thinks so, which is why it has updated its Android Market Videos app and rolled it out to smartphones.
Android Market Videos App
The Videos app is the official video player for Android Market movie rentals. It previously only worked on devices running Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) but has now been updated and rolled out to smartphones running the 2.2 and 2.3 versions of Google’s mobile operating system.
Once installed the Videos app gives you access to all movies rented through the Android Market, which can be bought for as little as $1.99. Rentals can even be saved locally to view offline, but once playback has begun it has to be completed within 24 hours.
The Videos app also deals with other videos, including YouTube content and clips you have recorded yourself.
Conclusions
I’m not convinced people will want to watch a movie on their phone at this point in time, especially one they have paid good money to rent. A tablet with a reasonable-sized screen, sure, but a smartphone? Really?
Luckily the Android Market Videos app does more than just allow you to rent movies, so even those who aren’t keen on that usage will find some worth in downloading and installing it. Assuming of course their phone is running Android 2.2 (Froyo) or higher.
[Via TechCrunch]
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