Sling Media Launches $29.99 SlingPlayer App For Android ‘Honeycomb’ Tablets
Sling Media, an EchoStar subsidiary, this morning announced the availability of SlingPlayer for tablets running Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) or later. The app is available on Android Market now and costs $29.99 …
Context & Ripple Effects
Sling Media, the EchoStar subsidiary behind the Slingbox, has been extending its place-shifting software platform-by-platform since it first promised an iPhone SlingPlayer back in January 2009; the new $29.99 Honeycomb build continues that cadence onto Google's tablet-only Android branch — notable given doubts earlier this year about whether Honeycomb would spread beyond tablets at all.
The launch also lands in a fragmented Android video market: when Hulu brought Hulu Plus to Android in June, it whitelisted just six devices, a constraint born of Android's version and chipset sprawl. Sling's decision to target 'Android 3.0 or later' generically is a direct answer to that whack-a-mole approach.
First-order effects
- Slingbox owners with Honeycomb tablets can now watch their home TV feeds on those devices for a one-time $29.99, sold through Android Market rather than bundled into any subscription.
- EchoStar gains a second paid mobile client alongside its iPhone app, monetizing each new OS port directly instead of giving the software away.
Second-order effects
- Hulu's six-device whitelist now looks more restrictive by comparison, adding pressure to broaden its Android certification list as rivals like Sling certify whole OS versions at once.
- The $29.99 price point sets a visible benchmark for premium TV-companion apps on Android, one competitors bundling apps 'free' with hardware or subscriptions will have to justify against.
Third-order effects
- If per-device paid apps become the norm for TV-everywhere clients, Android's fragmentation turns into a revenue multiplier for app owners — but also an opening for hardware makers and pay-TV operators to undercut them by preloading free clients, a tension the industry has not yet resolved.
The trend: TV-everywhere apps are spreading from smartphones to tablets faster than the industry has settled on how to charge for them — paid per-device downloads versus subscription-bundled access remains the open contest.