Netflix finally updated its iOS app to allow for in-app subscriptions, allowing iPhone and iPad users to pay their Netflix membership via iTunes.
This feature has long been requested and it's long overdue, especially since other streaming services such as Hulu, Spotify, HBO Now and others have been supporting in-app subscriptions for a good while now. Netflix for iOS is just catching up now, but it's better late than never.
Netflix has been available for iOS users since 2010, but up until now it never offered in-app purchases. One reason behind its reluctance so far could be related to Apple's hefty App Store tax, grabbing as much as 30 percent of all money stemming from in-app purchases. Some companies who allow users to subscribe through in-app purchases on iOS chose to boost their prices so they can cover Apple's share, while others chose to avoid it altogether and hold off on offering in-app purchases.
Apple and Netflix may have reached an agreement to lower that 30 percent rate, but it remains unconfirmed at this point. Lower rate or not, Netflix finally caved and added this option to its iOS app.
With the latest update, users can now subscribe straight from the Netflix app on their iPhone or iPad, making it far simpler and more convenient.
Netflix announced the update on Twitter, leveraging its widely popular original series Orange is the New Black to introduce Apple's Siri digital assistant for iOS as the latest inmate of Litchfield.
In the introductory video for the announcement, inmates "Crazy Eyes" and Taystee from Orange is the New Black come upon an iPhone left on a bed in the Litchfield prison and take it as a sign that someone from the outside is trying to communicate with them. That someone is Siri, who's there to help.
It remains to be seen how things will pan out if Apple launches its own streaming TV service as rumored, as it would directly compete with Netflix and the likes. For now, however, iOS users have more reasons to enjoy Netflix on their mobile device. The updated Netflix for iOS app is available now in iTunes and works with iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices running iOS 7 or later.
