The Windows Phone Store filled a big gap in its app selection this morning, with the Hulu Plus app. The app features a clean layout with Live Tile support for updates on your favorites, and runs on on Wi-Fi, 3G, and 4G LTE networks. The app’s just like the non-mobile version, with all movies movies, TV shows, trailers, and everything from your own saved queues and favorites. The app requires premium subscription service, which gives you all the videos in HD with unlimited streaming.
Hulu Plus costs $8 a month, and has an impressive library of movies and TV. It’s important to note here that with Hulu Plus, some ads remain. Various ad-free kids shows are available (SpongeBob SquarePants and Nickelodeon fare is cited on the App’s download page), but overall, don’t expect an entirely ad-free experience from the service. One of our favorite places to start looking for movies on Hulu Plus is the Criterion Collection category. Titles from the company’s library typically run for $30 or $40 on disc, minimum, so for $8 a month, you can afford to seek out something a little bit different.
With this update, the Windows Phone Store can cross off one of its most requested apps, but it’s still way behind the iOS App Store and Google Play Store on overall app count, and especially on games. If Microsoft can cross a few more top-tier apps off of that list by the end of the summer, it’ll go a long way to keeping Windows Phone afloat through the next generation of smartphones.
We’ve previously reported on how Microsoft managed to attain 7.4 percent of the global smartphone marketshare last quarter, up from zero percent in the first quarter of 2012. Now it’s time to see if they can start the fall off with something just a bit more impressive, and Hulu Plus is definitely a step in the right direction.
