YouTube: “Flash Platform will continue to play a critical role”
I’m sure you’ve heard that some people are saying that HTML5 is going to kill Flash and how that is already happening with the <video> tag. YouTube, the world’s largest video site, has just published a blog post where they weigh in on the whole HTML5/Flash debate.
In the post they highlight some of Flash’s strong points including robust video streaming, content protection, encapsulation, camera and microphone access, and many more.
Check out the post on YouTube’s API Blog.
Flash on!
6 Comments
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It’s really nice that finally a big player is pointing out the strengths of flash in this area. When the time comes, that the -tag supports real streaming it will differ in every browser, making it a new js/css mess like we are struggling now.
HTML5 is great to deliver videos to platforms that currently don’t support flash. Like the iPhone/iPad or other devices.
It’s filling a tiny gap. Nothing else!
Great link, good to read a reality check from YouTube in this hype war :)
But for me the the most interesting bit is about VP8 and WebM, it`s crazy that up until now the closed (and laughably expensive) H.264 standard was supported by everyone, all hail to VP8 and kudos to Adobe to promise supporting it too!
The whole debate on HTML 5 vs. Flash seems to focus more or less on Video. E.g. Hustler has announced to switch to HTML 5 and once again some people see the end of Flash.
I do not understand, why Adobe makes it clearer that Flash is not just Video, but much more. It’s also a RIA platform with a development environment. Especially the last part is a huge drawback with HTML 5.
@Georges
The iPhone is hardly a “tiny gap.” Apple is on it’s way to owning the majority of the mobile market, which is the computing platform of the near future for many consumers.
But the YouTube blog has many valid points as to why Flash is still an important technology. IF Adobe can provide a kick-ass player on mobile devices AND there’s an uptick in desirable Flash content for mobile use, then in time Apple may relent should enough customers display dissatisfaction with a non-Flash compatible iPhone.
I think it’d be in Adobe’s best interests to also continue a strong effort for optimizing the player for the mac desktop platform.
@Carsten: I could not agree with you more. Flash is much much more then playing video. And I don’t know why people think when HTML5 “takes over” the video segment, flash will die.
But on the other side it’s good news the largest video supplier on the web still uses flash and will be doing so the next years
Steve Jobs and Apple are definitely causing everyone a problem with their refusal to support Flash. Either vast numbers of users of Apple devices will be left out in the cold, or more likely we will see video technology be stalled by a war of competing standards, neither of which can win a decisive share of the market. See http://overstat.blogspot.com/2010/07/to-flash-or-not-to-flash.html as to why Jobs is wrong and Apple should back down (but won’t).
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