I want to be excited and/or happy about the prospect of Netflix coming to the iPhone. Sadly, however, the content library is in dire need of a refresh. Don’t misunderstand, I enjoy much of the content provided for what feels like free on my Roku, however after a while, you find yourself watching the Amazon Demand content more and more as Netflix’s “new additions” are primarily movies that are either twenty years old or TV shows you never watched in the first place, such as SNL.

So when I heard that Netflix was coming to the iPhone, I replied with the question: who cares? Unless the content provided is about to get a real upgrade, I fear most people will continue using iTunes for their video content. Perhaps some YouTube as well, but obviously not for their TV/movie needs.

So is streaming movie content to your iPhone possible? Uh, yes, it is actually. As a matter of fact, a developer friend of mine has been doing this for some time now. The application, still under heavy development, does work — I’ve tested it. It requires a Linux desktop (sorry guys, Windows is coming eventually) and will allow you to stream practically any video content you want.

What’s it look like? As you can see here, it’s merely providing a simple portal from which you can connect. It’s very powerful in its simplicity. The future of it is likely going to be P2P based to deal better with bandwidth as folks connect to a stream.

So do we even need Netflix? From a DMCA sense, yes, as we as people do not have access to the rights to stream movies. But don’t think for a second that what Netflix is talking about is even remotely ground breaking. Sadly, it’s once again moving at the pace set out for it by the movie companies… and that is darned slow.

[awsbullet:netflix]