
Why there’s still no Netflix app for Android - Fragmentation - jaybol
http://www.edibleapple.com/why-theres-still-no-netflix-app-for-android-fragmentation/
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Zak
I think it would be more accurate to say that there's no Netflix app because
the movie studios want DRM features and Android doesn't provide them directly.

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dotBen
One of the great things about Android is that it is an open system that anyone
can hack on (read: tinker with it, not commit illegality).

Its possible to create DRM systems within open systems (at the closed
application level rather than the open OS level) if NetFlix want to... there
is no need to have add some proprietary DRM in Android OS.

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dangrossman
It'd be too easy to get keys out of the software, so the studios wouldn't go
for that. There's a reason DRM is baked into operating systems.

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dminor
Yes, and thank goodness they've stamped out piracy on those operating systems
with integrated DRM.

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dangrossman
Netflix's concern is to meet the contractual obligations necessary to be able
to provide content to their subscribers. Whether the DRM does anything to
inhibit piracy is irrelevant to them.

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dminor
Yes, obviously. My comment was directed at "the studios" if that wasn't clear.

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bigmac
_That said, the process of dealing with each Android handset on a case by case
basis is a lot more arduous and time consuming than developing the app for
platforms like iOS and Windows Phone 7._

I have to wonder if that has something to do with why the Angry Birds update
is so broken. It works fine on my HTC Incredible, but it is now completely
unusable by my wife and one of our friends.

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nl
That's not fragmentation, that's lack of a particular feature.

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arron61
It amazes me that writers do not understand this simple point. They saw the
word "fragment" and jumped to conclusions right away without fully
understanding the original article.

Android is missing a DRM feature - which Netflix never fully explained and to
get around this, they are working with handset makers to add this feature.

This is not fragmentation. This is actually pretty cool considering that they
are able to get around limitations imposed by the operating system.

If Android 2.3 added this feature, this problem or "so-called" fragmentation
will disappear.

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Xuzz
Once, of course, all the devices get upgrades to it. When I'm still seeing
releases of Android 1.5, I'm actually unsure if working with the OS for this
would actually make it more difficult to support on a variety of platforms.

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tomjen3
Not really, it is pretty easy to say that your app requires Android such and
such version and if you browse the market with a version less than that, it
won't show up.

On no, thats not fragmentation either - all old apps run on later versions.

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Xuzz
Sure, but then you have the exact same issue where only a subset of devices
can use Netflix.

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tomjen3
No the problem isn't fragmentation but that Netflix insisted on using features
that weren't part of the API -- which would get you banned on the iOS and
properly on Win7 as well.

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cookiecaper
I was under the impression that Netflix DRM relied only on a Silverlight
component anyway. Is this not correct? How do they depend on the OS to provide
this functionality?

Does the Wii also provide such functionality? Netflix is on a lot of devices
these days so it's hard to swallow the idea that lack of OS-level DRM is
keeping it off. In fact, if I remember correctly, Netflix is available on TiVO
and Boxee, both of which are Linux platforms, and Linux definitely doesn't
have a baked-in DRM facility and I would be highly skeptical that there is a
private implementation of OS-level DRM on both Boxee and TiVO that hasn't hit
the masses. So it's almost definitely just an excuse.

