Verizon FiOS coming to the iPad and other mobile devices

Verizon plans to step the mobile video content game up a few notches. The leading fiber-optic service provider in the U.S. introduced a pair of upcoming applications today for streaming FiOS programming, GigaOM reports. One of which to its Android-powered devices, BlackBerrys and even Windows Mobile smartphones, while the other will run on -- the iPad.

The first application to be available will come to the DROID X, DROID 2, the BlackBerry Storm2 and select Windows Mobile 6.5 devices when it launches in Q4 2010. The app will give users access to video-on-demand content that once purchased, can be stored in the cloud and downloaded/streamed to multiple devices, PCs and TVs.

Perhaps the more interesting of the two however, is the one coming early next year for the iPad. The added functionality with this application will be the ability to stream the same linear programming straight to your iPad that you currently enjoy on your TV. This may sound like the ultimate mobile TV solution, but the application will only work within the residence with the active FiOS subscription. Verizon CIO Shaygan Kheradpir said this is because it will allow the app to register with the "cloud" to verify that the user has the proper rights to consume the content.

With rumors of Verizon iPhones and iPads in early 2011 running rampant lately, the addition of these applications sure spices things up even more. It will be interesting to see if the functionality of these apps expands or grows in the event that iOS-powered devices find themselves on "The Network".