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Filed under: *VIDEO* •compression •Distribution •Mobile Devices •

Tépper’s remedy for Flash-lovers who are still in denial

I have been quite surprised about the comments sent to me by Flash-lovers who are still in denial, of which a few have been public on the ProVideo Coalition website, and many more have been private, sometimes desperate sounding e-mails. In the past, people used to say that some Mac-lovers were religious fanatics. I now realize that some Flash-lovers are perhaps even more devoted religious fanatics. Some of these Flash religious fanatics have made terrible criticisms about Steve Jobs and Apple regarding their position about Flash, despite both Google and Microsoft backing that position. The purpose of this article is to help Flash religious fanatics who are still in denial to come to grips with reality and get through their “mourning” period as gracefully as possible.

Here are the steps:

STEP 1: Separate your content-consumer attitude from your content-producer attitude

It is vital for you to recognize that as a professional reader of ProVideo Coalition magazine, you must learn to separate your dual personality, since you are both a content-consumer and a content producer.

STEP 2: Release your content consumer frustration

If you are a Flash religious fanatic, you can do the following to help release your frustration:

• Send nasty comments, e-mails, and letters about Apple, Steve Jobs, Google, Microsoft, and even about me.
• Have a friend shoot a video of you while you destroy an iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch and upload the video to YouTube.
• Buy an Android-based phone, which might someday be able to play Flash (if there is any Flash content left on the web by the time they do).

Remember that even if you just close your eyes and simply imagine having done those things, you may release as much frustration as having actually done them in real life. After you do any or all of the this and feel relieved, go to the following step.

STEP 3: Recognize that as a content producer, you only have one logical choice

Now that you’ve gotten that out of your system in the prior step, realize that you aren’t going to be able to convince 30-million iPhone owners and 1 million iPad owners to get rid of their Apple devices. You’re not going to convince Steve Jobs to accept Flash on Apple’s mobile devices either. You —and your clients— cannot afford to have 31 million potential viewers miss your content because it is incompatible with their devices. You must create content that is compatible with those 31 million devices, which (in case you didn’t get it yet) is not Flash. You must create non-Flash content, or convert your existing content to non-Flash, and in the process, join the growing list of organizations like ABC, Brightcove, CBS, CNET TV, CNN, CNN Money, CW Network, ESPN, Facebook, Fox News, Flickr, InStyle, LIFE, Major League Baseball, MSNBC, National Geographic, the National Hockey League, Netflix, Nike, NPR, The Onion, People magazine, Reuters, the Rouxbe Cooking School, Sports Illustrated, TED, The New York Times, Spin, Sports Illustrated, Time, TV Guide, the TWIT network, YouTube, Vimeo, Virgin America, and the White House, who have already seen the light and done it too. If you need help, attend one of my upcoming seminars or webinars, which will show you how to create compatible content, while detecting a browser’s version and falling back to Flash if necessary for an older, non-updated computer.

What about Google’s Android-based phones?

Google’s Android phones have done fairly well, but not nearly as well as Apple’s collection of mobile devices so far. So even if Android devices are upgraded to play Flash content, you still can’t ignore the 31 million (and counting) Apple devices that are in the hands of content consumers. You must make your content compatible with those 31 million Apple devices, which are already in the hands of 31 million potential viewers.

You’ll feel even better when you read the next section below.

STEP 4: Feel good that Adobe’s power and market share are increasing, while Flash wanes.

Read the related article, The exodus from Final Cut Pro to Adobe Premiere CS5 has begun: Adobe’s power and market share increase while Flash wanes.

Other related items you may have missed before:

• Article: Encoding web video in the age of the iPhone (2008, Allan Tépper)
• Article: Tépper is glad that the iPad doesn’t support Flash (April 5, 2010)
• Steve Jobs’ open letter: Thoughts on Flash (last week of April, 2010)
• Adobe CEO’s rebut-interview with the Wall Street Journal(April 29, 2010)
• Microsoft’s blogpost HTML5, which backs Apple’s and Google’s position (April 29, 2010)

My seminars and webinars will continue to show the best ways to encode and embed content in such a way that it is both compatible with HTML5, yet with automatic fallback for older browsers.

Allan Tépper’s articles, seminars, and audio programs

Get a full index of Allan Tépper’s articles and upcoming seminars and webinars at AllanTepper.com. Listen to his radio program TecnoTur, which is now available both in Castilian and in English, free of charge. Search for TecnoTur in iTunes or visit TecnoTur.us for more information.

Disclosure, to comply with the FTC’s rules

None of the manufacturers listed in this article is paying Allan Tépper or TecnoTur LLC specifically to write this article. Some of the manufacturers listed above have contracted Tépper and/or TecnoTur LLC to carry out consulting and/or translations/localizations/transcreations. At the date of the publication of this article, none of the manufacturers listed above are sponsors of the TecnoTur programs, although they are welcome to do so, and some are (or have been) sponsors of ProVideo Coalition magazine.

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OK, I’m really not taking sides in this one. I make both versions, since it really doesn’t take that long to do, but I found this article interesting:

http://dvice.com/archives/2010/05/flash-kicks-htm.php

Posted by DanConklin  on  05/06  at  07:50 PM

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I’m not a Flash lover as I pointed out before. In fact, I dislike the app a lot since the Macromedia days. I don’t use Flash much except for some video content because of SEO and other issues. Check my sites - you won’t see hardly any Flash content.

But your article is misleading as is Apples statement. Yes, there are 31 million iPhone/iPad users. However, Androids growth rate is huge (google the numbers) and it projections say Android is poised to overtake Apple and RIM.

And, you fail to point out the hundreds of millions of contents sources on unavailable to iPhone/iPad users because they cannot play Flash.

Finally, Dan’s video link seems to totally contradict Apples statements.

Posted by stephen v2  on  05/06  at  11:54 PM

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Even if the number of Android phone users exceed the number of iPhone users (which they don’t yet), there are still iPod Touch users, who also don’t see flash.

In mid Feb Google announced that 60,000 Android phones were shipping every day. If that number has not increased or decreased, there are today about 5 million Android phones. If the number has increased exponentially, there are about 10 million Android phone users. And they cannot see Flash content yet.

At the iPad event Jobs announced that 75 million iPhone OS devices were sold so far. So, as of now these 75 million iPhone+iPad+iPod Touch users, plus 5 million Android Phone users - 80 million consumers still don’t see Flash.

When flash comes to Android, 5 million out of 80 million Flash deprived users will see Flash content.

For content developers, will that be enough, or will they want those 75 million (and counting) who cannot and will never see Flash. If they decide to go alternative to get the 75 million market, chances are, even when Androids exceed iPhones, no one will come back to developing Flash.

Posted by Neil Sadwelkar  on  05/08  at  10:08 PM

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The thing is, it’s not all about phones or even all the mobile devices. Many phones doen’t even support any multimedia content. There are still Blu-ray , DVD and CD players in stand-alone, and laptop, DVR, and desktop PC devices that all support Flash, and Flash content is incredibly easy to produce since CS3.

I agree mostly with your arguments with why Flash might go away, but I don’t think it’s going to happen so soon, just because Steve Jobs, et.al says it should. Flash issues can be fixed, but HTML5 would need to become HTML6.

Posted by DanConklin  on  05/09  at  10:41 AM

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Peak oil and peak rare metals will make all of this moot.

We’re at the cutting edge all right - the cutting edge of a tech backlash - anecdotally I would say people in general don’t read as many books as they once did - why? - Because there aren’t that many good authors - Content - it’s mostly crap - whether in Flash or HTML5 or whatever is next - coming generations will gravitate away from the novelty of the pocket tv communicator device - it is inevitable.

There is a revolution on the way but it is one that is “less” wired not “more”.

Posted by Jim Hines  on  05/12  at  09:06 AM

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