Google Movie service, which so far was available on Android 3.1 based tablets with 3G and Android 2.2 running smartphones, has now been extended to the WiFi only Xoom tablets as well.
Google Movies has over 3,000 movie titles from Universal, Sony and Warner Bros that users can rent or purchase.
During the initial phase, in which only selected tablets got the service, seems to be an attempt by Google to test the service with a smaller audience before making it a large scale service. The testing seems to be over and so the service is making way to tablets like Xoom WiFi.
These movies are also available through YouTube for purchase and rental. The rental price starts at $1.99 (about Rs 90). Movies rented through Youtube can be watched on Android tablets and phones and vice-versa.
It will pose a big challenge to OEM services like HTC Watch and Samsung Movies, titles of which can only be played on their own branded devices. For example, HTC Watch service only works on HTC devices and so does the Samsung services.
On the other hand, the Google Movie service will work across all the devices including on non Android devices (Youtube is available across all platforms). Moreover, they have much more titles compared to these OEMs (Samsung Movies has approximately 500 titles).