TV placeshifting operator Sling Media plans to sell an iPhone version of its Sling Player through the iTunes Store after its alpha version has been modified to accommodate the handset’s new SDK. Sling gave a demo of its player at Apple’s (NSDQ: AAPL) Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco this week (video after the jump), but it currently runs on a jailbroken iPhone so is not eligible for inclusion in Apple’s store.
Sling business development manager Baldip Singh told me: “A lot of the leg work has been done. We intend to develop our app using the SDK and selling it using the App Store.” For pricing, as a ballpark figure, Sling’s other mobile clients cost £19.99 ($39), Singh said.
Despite the inclusion of 3G in the new iPhone, Sling so far is only looking to push TV over WiFi to the device, Singh said. Though Sling has formal carriage with several mobile operators, it is also trying to encourage others to badge their all-you-can-eat data bundles “Sling-compatible” if they afford customers sufficient bandwidth – something Singh believes could drive adoption from users who might download Sling’s mobile clients regardless of any relationship between their network and the company.
Meanwhile, Sling is also working on clients for BlackBerry. Singh confirmed the first device will be the 8120 model. Business travelers looking for their home TV experience “sounds like a great demographic to me”, he said: “RIM’s (NSDQ: RIMM) change of business tack has been ‘anything but email’ – we sit well with that.”