We wonder what sites Dave Winer visits when he argues that Apple’s boycott of Flash for its iOS devices isn’t working.
I see new Flash content several times every day when I catch up on the news with my iPad.
What Flash-heavy news sites is Dave visiting, because we don’t see them. Before the iPad was released, we’d routinely see video embeds in RSS feeds that were Flash-based, but most of these have now been replaced or supplemented with HTML5-compatible versions. In fact, other than Flash video, what new Flash content is being created on anything other than a fashion/designer web page? Most web-savvy companies have moved on, or at the very least, now offer non-Flash versions of their sites.
Winer’s claim is akin to the argument that Barack Obama is a muslim – outlandish claims not backed by facts. We suppose, if someone sought out Flash-heavy news sites, one could find them, but why try to skew the big picture? Sites that only offer Flash content nowadays are effectively cutting out their mobile audience, considering that most Android devices don’t even support Flash yet. So any site that cares about readership (i.e. a good news site) isn’t throwing Flash in your face. And really, it’s not even about just mobile readership anymore, as more and more people are using devices like the iPad at home.
When the iPad was released, there were those who refused to buy it based on its lack of Flash support (or at least so they claimed). But those voices are dying, and the longer it takes for a proper iPad competitor to reach the market, the more companies are foolish for not offering HTML5-compliant content. And no one’s going to support Flash long-term if HTML5 works for a broader audience, despite the fact that Flash was a preferred tool for many developers in years past. If that were the case, developers would still be writing code in FORTRAN.
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