Netflix

Coming soon to an iPhone near you -- a selection of new movies? Netflix, the pioneer of home DVD delivery that recently stated streaming movies online and onto game consoles, appears to be testing the waters for an iPhone app.

A single-question e-mail survey began reaching Netflix users this week trying to gauge interest in such an app.

App May Not Have 3G

Netflix Inc.'s fourth-quarter profit surged 36 percent as its DVD-by-mail service surpassed 12 million subscribers, and the company announced an upbeat outlook for 2010 that sent its shares soaring Wednesday.

The results reflect the growing popularity of Netflix plans that bundle DVD rentals with unlimited video streaming over the Internet for as little as $9 per month.

Netflix added more than 1.1 million customers during the quarter -- the most in any three-month period during its 11-year history.

Nintendo's Wii gaming console is still blasting its competition, with sales reaching record levels during the 2009 holiday season, but the popular, motion-sensing system is losing ground to Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox.

The Kyoto, Japan-based company saw revenues drop 9.4 percent and earnings drop 23 percent in the three-quarter period ending in December 2009, compared to last year, according to figures released Thursday.

In the fiscal year ending in March, the company anticipates a drop in profits from $6.1 billion last year to $4.1 billion.

The Federal Communications Commission has a daunting task to complete this spring. The deadline for public comment on the FCC's proposed Net-neutrality rules passed this week, and now the FCC is accepting rebuttals and replies to comments made by Internet companies, industry associations, and government officials.

The proposed Net-neutrality framework or national broadband plan would regulate businesses in an effort to ensure that all people of the U.S. have broadband access. The rule change also means consumers will have more say in which Internet products succeed.

Soon to be playing on your Wii game console: Netflix. The popular movie service announced Wednesday that it has agreed with Nintendo to offer instantly streaming movies and TV episodes on the Wii. The service will be available at no additional cost to Netflix members who have a plan starting at $8.99 per month, and who have a broadband Internet connection for their Wii.

The service, which offers thousands of movies and TV shows, will begin in the U.S. in the spring.

'As Many Ways as Possible'

Netflix on Monday announced the winner of its $1 million search contest. Just moments later, Netflix launched a new million-dollar challenge to encourage engineers, computer scientists, and machine-learning communities to keep working on improvements.

Adobe's Flash technology, omnipresent in virtually every computer and rapidly moving throughout mobile devices, is now rolling into digital home devices, including televisions and set-top boxes.

salesforce.com is integrating Twitter, Netflix is turning to Facebook to add social-networking bells and whistles. Netflix on Tuesday said it has integrated with Facebook Connect, which lets companies add Facebook features to their sites.

For Netflix, Facebook Connect will seamlessly link a Netflix member's account with his or her Facebook account. The result will extend the member's movie ratings from the Netflix community to Facebook. Netflix members decide if they want to use Facebook Connect and can turn it off at any time.

Microsoft and Netflix on Thursday announced that one million Xbox LIVE Gold members have downloaded and activated the Netflix application since the alliance launched last November.

With the application, Xbox LIVE Gold members can instantly watch movies and TV episodes from Netflix on a television via the Xbox 360 video-game console. Microsoft's one million Gold members have watched 1.5 billion minutes of movies and TV episodes through Netflix in just three months.

Confounding its own outlook for slowing growth in the fourth quarter, Netflix said its subscriber base grew by a robust 26 percent year over year to about 9,390,000 subscribers at the close of 2008.

"In hindsight, we underestimated the positive impact of the introduction of the multifunction consumer electronics devices from LG Electronics, Samsung, Microsoft and TiVo that promote Netflix streaming," said Reed Hastings, Netflix cofounder and CEO. "The precise impact of the recession is unclear, but it is very clear that streaming is energizing our growth."