VLC media player is comming soon for Android

Open source OS and open source media player. Good match, no? One would think so, especially since VLC has long been a favorite of not just of Windows and Mac users, but also of Linux users, being one of the best media players of all three environments. But more than one year ago, the VLC team took a very strange decision, one that they paid dearly for – they decided to make the iOS version first.

Why did they pay dearly for it? Because, evidently, Apple rejected it from the app store, on the grounds that its open source license is incompatible with their app store’s policies. So they took all this time to develop the app, in a pretty foreign language for most developers, Objective C, and it appears it was all for naught.

Since then, there have been a lot of good media players on Android, with everyone’s favorite being the MX Player. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for VLC anymore. It’s just that now they have to work a lot harder to beat everyone else, if they want to be the people’s new favorite.

VLC has never been a “pretty” media player by default, unless you installed some skin for it, so it remains to be seen how it will look. My guess is it will share a similar look as the one it has in version 2.0 for desktop. Personally, I would prefer if they went with some Holo style design, and I’m sure many others would like it, too.

When will this VLC app for Android launch? They haven’t said yet, but it may be coming very soon.