It’s not TV, it’s HBO — on your mobile phone, no less. Well, a couple of them, anyway. Oh, look, just in time for True Blood, too. That’s right, if you own and Android or an iPhone/iPad, the adventures of Sookie Stackhouse will soon be available on your device, provided you have an existing HBO account.
After months of trashing Netflix and its attempts to acquire HBO’s content, the premium cable channel is fully embracing the streaming-content business. First, the HBO GO service answered Netflix’s gauntlet, because it’s always a good business strategy to alienate other successful distribution chains. Now, they’ve set their sites on the trendy app crowd with the release of the HBO GO apps (iPhone, Android).
Naturally, the use the application, you must have an account with HBO that stems from your cable (or satellite) bill. The early reviews on both the Android app store and iTunes are pretty favorable, especially on the iTunes side. As for the complaints from the Android crowd, they seem to be focusing on compatibility issues instead of the quality of the application.
Here are some screenshots, all from the Apple environment:
iPhone
iPad
And, just for fun, here’s a video of an older HBO intro, circa, 1983.
I can’t imagine the concept of phones playing television content was anywhere close to being on the minds of the designers when that was created.