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Why Not Flash?

July 6th, 2006

On July 5, 2006, I posted this comment on Scobleizer:

I see at least two problems with Flash:

1. I can’t play the flash video on: the ipod, tivo, psp, any set top box, the Nokia 91, any phone, or any other portable device for that matter … Flash may work on 98% of the PCs but this is only a fraction of where I want to watch my video.

2. What if Adobe decides to bundle the Acrobat reader in the same way that Apple is bundling iTunes with Quicktime for Windows? Why not? Then what? What if they start including some sort of advertising pre-roll or start charging for the player? Why should they give it away for free once they have total lock in? Would you? Do you think Adobe makes a dime off of YouTube or Google video? Don’t you think they want to?

Let’s just imagine for a moment what Microsoft would have done if they had a monopoly on online digital video playback. They got pretty close before iTunes and Flash saved us. Content owners were afraid. Rightly so.

Now let’s imagine another scenario: Microsoft buys Adobe and then decides that Linux and Mac playback should be handled in the same way that Mac support for Windows Media is handled. Now we are all sunk. [source]

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