Vimeo Adds iPhone, Android Support

Mo Bet­ter Video on the iPhone

Vimeo’s video dis­tri­b­u­tion ser­vice has gained a rep in the indie pro­duc­tion com­mu­ni­ties and among blog­gers as a favorite video-sharing and embed­ding site, with its clean, sim­ple inter­face and good qual­ity Flash encod­ing. Now, the New York-based com­pany has added the abil­ity to dis­trib­ute to iPhone/iPod Touch and Google Android devices.

This past Wednes­day Vimeo announced that its staff picks and HD video show­case, two of the most pop­u­lar parts of the site, had been re-encoded to H.264. The next step, says Vimeo’s direc­tor of com­mu­nity Blake Whit­man, is to extend iPhone sup­port to all Plus mem­bers over the next few weeks.

Avid users include many pro types such as HDSLR pio­neer Philip Bloom. The attrac­tion? Rather than the free-for-all mix of high and low, rube and pro of a YouTube, Vimeo feels more like a self-selected club of sup­port­ive enthu­si­asts. This is espe­cially the case among those who buy the Plus mem­ber­ship (the basic site is free). At $60 a year, perks include unlim­ited HD upload­ing and the abil­ity to embed videos else­where in HD, while users self-police to make sure every­one sticks by rules such as post­ings uploaded only by actual con­tent creators—no reposted TV episodes here.

Vimeo, part of Barry Diller’s IAC empire, will soon relo­cate to Frank Gehry’s iconic West Chelsea “sail­boat” build­ing. While the site faces com­pe­ti­tion from YouTube (which already re-encodes all uploaded video for smart­phones), Vimeo prides itself on lis­ten­ing to its pro-oriented users closely. Expect the Plus site—which is already find­ing use as a dailies deliv­ery system—to add future prod­ucts that more closely address the needs of pro­duc­tion pro­fes­sion­als, says Whitman.

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