UPDATED 16:38 EDT / JANUARY 29 2010

Is Hulu Coming to the iPad?

image Om Malik thinks so.  I’m not so sure.

Om talked to Hulu CEO, Jason Kilar at the DLD conference in Munich this week and talked specifically about the iPad plans for the popular destination site for Heritage Media video.

Of course, Jason, who graduated from the Jeff Bezos School of Management, and like his former boss plays his cards close to the vest, didn’t reveal anything specific.

When I asked Kilar if he was going to make a special version of a Hulu app for the iPad, Kilar said: “We are very big believers in mobile and we don’t think about (just) one device only.” My translation: Expect Hulu to be on multiple platforms such as the iPhone and Android. I would expect the Android version to show up first because it supports Flash, while Apple’s iPhone OS platform doesn’t. If Hulu has to support iPhone OS, it would needto re-encode its videos in order to make them work.

It certainly make sense, but when Kilar says “multiple platforms,” that could very easily mean Android, Windows Mobile, and Palm Pre. Hulu, for better or for worse, is married to the Adobe suite of platforms. Apple, for whatever reason, hate’s Adobe’s guts.

Then there’s the whole issue of aspect ratio – the vast majority of Hulu content is 16:9, and the Apple iPad is designed for 4:3 aspect ratio.

I think that the Apple fans can continue to hope and pray to almighty Jobs for true choice in online video consumption, but when it comes to Hulu, I think those prayers will remain unanswered.


A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU