Given Adobe Flash’s ubiquity, the lack of Flash support is certainly one of the biggest turn-offs for potential iPad buyers. On the other hand, some of leading publishers are sidestepping the issue by providing alternative video streaming methods.
For example both Brightcove platform which enables them to detect the visitor’s operating system and to route the appropriate video stream accordingly.
So, let’s say, if an iPad user hits the publisher’s page, Brightcove will detect Apple iPhone OS on the visitor’s system and will stream H.264-encoded video renditions optimized for iPad screen resolution via html5. Problem solved.
Here is Brightcove’s sales pitch to publishers:
Ready for Apple iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
Reduce the cost and complexity of delivering and monetizing video on current and future generations of Apple devices that support the HTML5 standard. Deliver the best possible video experience to iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users.Automatic Device Detection
Brightcove automatic device detection dynamically switches between Flash and HTML5 player templates to suit the viewer’s device capabilities.Native HTML5 Player Templates
New HTML5 templates provide multi-title playlists, analytics tracking, social sharing controls, advertising insertion, and other capabilities to provide a customizable video experience built on open standards.Gorgeous H.264 transcoding
Brightcove’s cloud transcoding engine converts virtually any source file into H.264-encoded video renditions optimized for multiple encoding profiles, bit rates, and screen sizes.Pricing and Availability
The Brightcove Experience for HTML5 is provided at no charge to customers with subscriptions to Brightcove Professional, Enterprise, and Express $499 editions. An early version of the automatic device detection and HTML5 player template are available in the Brightcove Developer Center. Additional capabilities will be provided in future versions released throughout 2010.
