OnLive Launches iPad Gaming Viewer App

At Tuesday's D: Dive into Mobile Conference, company founder and chief executive Steve Perlman unveiled new apps for the Apple iPad, and Android devices like the Samsung Galaxy Tab, that will let you watch others play games on the OnLive service, turning video games into a true "spectator's sport."

The Android ecosystem

"We're delighted to welcome OnLive to the Android ecosystem," said Andy Rubin, vice president of mobile platforms at Google. "OnLive has been able to take advantage of Android's open platform to deliver an advanced user experience in record time."

OnLive's ambitions, although, seem to extend then beyond gaming. While today's session at D: Dive into Mobile, OnLive's Perlman demonstrated how he can not only run a series of high-end applications on a Samsung Galaxy Tab through OnLive's Viewer, including Autodesk Maya, however also how he can browse Flash-based Web sites and run Windows 7 Touch—again, all through OnLive's mobile Viewer. In substance, OnLive's viewer is acting as a terminal viewer for cloud-based services, apps and platforms.

"The OnLive Viewer mobile App is the last piece of the puzzle to unify the worlds of TV, computing and mobile all pursuant to this agreement one real-time cloud-based platform, enabling before inconceivable experiences, capabilities and live, video-rich social interaction," said Perlman.

This Viewer, now, may not be the "last piece of the puzzle." According to a recent report, OnLive, which already offers HD gaming on the PC and Mac, as then as a standalone network-connected console you can use to play OnLive's cloud-based games on an HDTV, may start offering streaming movies in 2011. Such a move would put the company in direct competition with streaming-movie leader Netflix.