Android fever: Hulu's arrival

After Netflix arrival sometimes ago on Adroid platform, Hulu makes the news with the announcement that it now serves subscribers using Android devices. For its Android front, Hulu called the service Hulu Plus.
However, Hulu Plus is only able to stream movies and TV shows for six Android devices due to Android’s fragmented copy protection.

Hulu’s director of product management Rob Wong in the company blog said the company knows that a lot of people want premium content on their Android smartphones. Further, he stated, “We’ve been working hard to make that a reality, and today, we have begun our early rollout of the Hulu Plus application on Android smartphones.”

The six smartphones include the Motorola Atrix, Motorola Droid II, Motorola Droid X, Nexus S, Nexus One and HTC Inspire 4G. Hulu Plus expects to add more Android devices this year.

The Hulu Plus is available as a free app and available from download from Android Market. The company provides a one week trial for users to test the service and see if it is worth subscribing.

Hulu Plus was launched last year for iOS devices. The service charges indiscriminate rates of $7.99 monthly fee for viewing on a PC or on a mobile device. The free version is available but it cannot be viewed with tablets and smartphones.

Using the same subscription, Hulu Plus is accessible on PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360, TiVo and several other products.

The limitation in terms of eligible devices is due to the copy protection in Android. The protection is designed to specific processor families. Sometimes, it is able to identify specific smarrphone models too. Developers expect the arrival of “Ice Cream Sandwich” will change the configuration.

Netflix chose to develop for Snapdragon processors while Hulu’s batch of compatible Android devices covers processors from Tegra 2 to 1GHZ Snapdragon.

Compared to Netflix, Hulu Plus has the competitive edge because it is able to present a THV show currently running. Hulu Plus also has richer and larger television library.

Hulu Plus is owned by investors like Disney, NBCUniversal and News Corp, among others.