mSpot Launches Web-Based Mobile Movie Streaming Service

Mobile entertainment startup mSpot is launching its Mobile Movies site, which will let users stream full-length movies on their mobile phones. Movies will be available on 30 different smart phones, including the iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile devices and via all four major U.S. carriers.

To access mSpot Mobile Movies, users can go to mSpot’s mobile site on their phone, and use a credit card to rent individual movies for $4.99 each, or subscribe to a monthly membership at $9.99 (for four movies), $12.99 or $15.99 per month. Based on the movie, rentals could last anywhere from 24 hours to 5 days. The movie will launch within the browser and is powered by the phone’s native media player.

mSpot has struck deals with Paramount, Universal and The Weinstein Company to stream movies onto mobile devices and at launch has 350 movies available on its streaming platform. mSpot’s movies are mainly new releases, says Daren Tsui, CEO of mSpot. Of course, mSpot’s main competition is Apple, which lets iPhone and iPod touch users, download and sync movies and shows onto their devices. But Tsui says the beauty of mSpot is that there’s no downloading or syncing process with a computer; you can simply start streaming a movie with a click of a button. Of course, mSpot will face other series competition from Netflix or Hulu, if either of their iPhone app rumors are true.