SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone announced
Six months after announcing its intention to bring SlingPlayer to the iPhone 3G, Sling Media has another announcement to make—just not the one you're wishing for. — SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone isn't ready yet, Sling said on Tuesday, but it is on its way.
Context & Ripple Effects
Sling Media had already committed to an iPhone 3G version of SlingPlayer six months earlier, and its Symbian S60 beta showed the company's pattern of porting its place-shifting software platform by platform. This announcement is a status update rather than a launch: the app is confirmed as in development but not ready, keeping the iPhone on Sling's roadmap while leaving users waiting. The carrier dimension loomed large — AT&T's network policies would soon become the central controversy around 3G streaming of SlingPlayer to the iPhone, and Sling would later deny claims that it coordinated with AT&T to enable 3G use.
First-order effects
- iPhone owners who want SlingPlayer Mobile get a confirmation the app is coming, but no release date — demand stays pent up while rival platforms (like Symbian S60) already have working clients.
- Sling Media locks in development resources for iOS ahead of launch, betting on the iPhone's growing installed base even before carrier approval is settled.
Second-order effects
- The eventual app forces a reckoning with AT&T over whether live TV streaming is allowed on 3G — a fight that spills into how other bandwidth-heavy apps like Skype's 3G client are treated.
- Competing place-shifting and mobile TV offerings must respond to Sling's iPhone presence or cede the fastest-growing smartphone platform.
Third-order effects
- If carriers keep gatekeeping bandwidth-heavy apps, app availability becomes a function of carrier policy as much as developer effort — a structural tension that shapes the mobile TV market.
- Sling's slow march from Symbian to iPhone to broader 'TV Everywhere' under Dish points toward place-shifting becoming a standard feature of pay-TV rather than a niche gadget category.
The trend: This is one data point in the shift of live-TV place-shifting from niche hardware ecosystems onto mainstream smartphones, where carrier network policy becomes as decisive as the app itself.