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United Airlines preparing iOS-exclusive in-flight movie service, rolling out next month

United Airlines is preparing to launch a brand-new service for in-flight movies that will be exclusive to Apple’s iOS devices. The service will allow customers to stream around 150 movies and 200 TV shows to their devices completely free while mid-flight.

The airline plans to start rolling this service as soon as next month for some flights. The hardware to support the system needs to be installed in each plane individually, but United is hopeful that its entire domestic fleet will be outfitted with the technology by the end of the year…

The service will be accessed through the free United Airlines app. Laptop computers will also be supported with a browser plugin, but other types of mobile devices, such as those running Android or Windows Phone, will not be supported at launch.

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Comments

  1. Michael Garnett (@_jorts) - 10 years ago

    I was shocked to read it will be free. We’ll see how long that lasts.

  2. frankman91 - 10 years ago

    I suppose it’s nice, but I don’t really see the point.

    When traveling, the first thing I do is load media on all of my portable devices. I have never banked on them playing an in-flight movie that I was going to want to watch, and I would feel the same way about the free stuff they plan to stream. And Michael is right, it will start free, then slide to a model of junk B movies for free, or ‘premium’ content for like a buck.

    I just sound like a complainer so I will shut up; this hurts nothing and I’m sure some people will love to have this as an option. but I will stick with my own content and avoid the airline app.

  3. Filipe Ferro - 10 years ago

    that’s the old United logo!