Well, color us surprised (and delighted). Apple has approved VLC Media Player for iPad, an app that plays a multitude of movie formats unsupported by the tablet's built-in video player.

VLC has been a popular open-source app on the desktop, capable of playing a wide range of media formats at high resolutions, making Apple's standard iTunes video player (which primarily plays .H264-encoded MPEG-4 videos) pale by comparison.

Wired.com's Charlie Sorrel got an early sneak peek at VLC for iPad about two weeks ago and said it was one of the most polished video players he'd seen, despite a few bugs.

Why is this such an interesting decision? A lot of consumers get movies and TV shows through (cough) alternative means, and before if they wanted to load their videos on the iPad, they'd have to go through the trouble of converting files to be iTunes-compatible. Approving VLC eliminates such headaches and opens the door for some serious competition with iTunes video rentals. I'm personally more interested in what it means for the new iOS-based Apple TV, if it turns out that third-party apps can indeed use AirPlay, a new feature that enables iOS devices to wirelessly stream content to the Apple TV.

VLC Media Player is a free download in the iPad's App Store.

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