During the Microsoft CES keynote Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, announced a forthcoming Windows Mobile application created to manage Netflix accounts. Microsoft made good on that commitment recently when they, in partnership with Netflix, released the Netflix Mobile Manager. While Netflix has had a mobile website available for some time and several applications exist for other platforms, there has not been a dedicated Windows Mobile solution for monitoring and modifying Netflix queues; at least until now.
Slick and snappy
As a user of both Windows Mobile and Netflix, I was able to install the application and gather some general impressions. As far as Windows Mobile applications go, this one is pretty slick. It was able to handle both my instant and mail queues well, managing to load my massive DVD list without even a hiccup. You can scroll through your movies via a kinetic scrolling mechanism that will seem very familiar to fans of the iPhone, and you can even edit the order of your queues.
The app has the ability to search for and add new movies to your instant watch or mail lists. The application will even allow you to preview trailers for select movies, streaming, right to your device. One caveat, in my experience I found that the trailers play a bit more smoothly via Wi-Fi versus 3G.
It’s got potential
On the whole, the application seems like it has potential to be something great. First off, hopefully in the next version of the application it will allow you to browse the entire Netflix catalog and not limit you to searching by title. A feature that could turn this from a great freeware app to an application worth paying for would be support for Netflix Watch Instantly.
Why stop at just movie previews, especially when we have seen what Sling Media has been able to do with the Windows Mobile platform? At this point, we can only hope that we will see even greater consumer benefits coming from this partnership in the near future.
Download: [Windows Mobile Netflix App]
What device were you using? It works pretty slow on mine.