Joost IPTV Comes To iPhone, iPod TouchJoost IPTV Comes To iPhone, iPod Touch

If there's one big skill Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis have, it's how to deliver the online goods.

This week, their Joost video Web service debuted for use on the iPhone and iPod Touch. The application is free and is available through Apple's App Store, which is making the flash-based service available along with a slew of documentaries, movies, music, and sports. The application is supported by ads.

"Offering Joost on the iPhone and iPod Touch is an important step for Joost as we endeavor to offer users premium entertainment where they want it and when they want it," Joost CEO Mike Volpi said in a statement.

Volpi said users can view Joost in a variety of ways, including by selecting "most popular" videos, browsing by category, and searching for specific videos.

It hasn't been so easy getting Joost online rolling, however. The Joost application on the Apple devices is being met by several vigorous competitors. Joost's global Web video service offers more than 46,000 videos (including 18,000 music videos) as well as 400 TV series and 1,200 movies and short films.

To help keep momentum, Joost has received venture financing from a variety of prominent VC firms and individual investors, including Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, CBS, and Hong Kong media power broker Li Ka-shing.

Still, Zennstrom and Friis know a good business model when they see it. The business partners were in the vanguard of peer-to-peer online music sharing with Kazaa. Their VoIP technology offering via Skype still dominates the voice-over-IP market. Both companies were sold at handsome profits.