[David Strom's Web Informant] 28 January 2010: The new browser wars: Flash vs. Swipe

[David Strom]

Web Informant 28 January 2010: The new browser wars: Flash vs. Swipe

Pardon me for adding yet another iPad analysis (certainly, when a
computer product launch makes it into Doonesbury, we have crossed a
new threshold of hype), but one thing actually missing from the
copious words and videos on yesterday's event at Moscone was the
simple fact that we have a new browser war on our hands, and it isn't
a pretty sight.

The browser wars of yesteryear between Microsoft and Netscape seem so
quaint. (And look what happened to Netsacpe, too.) Today it is all
about Adobe Flash versus the multi-touch swipe technology that is part
of Apple's product lines.

Why is this a war? Apple's iPod, iTouch, and now iPad all share a lack
of support for Adobe's Flash technology, the animation glue that binds
Web pages to in-line video playback. When you bring up your Safari
browser in these devices, you see a big blank nothing on the pages
that have Flash content to play. And what that means to me is that
Apple has made it clear: rewrite your sites to support our own
technologies (including new apps that are certain to populate the
iTunes Store soon), or be forever absent from this brave new world of
cool devices that Steve is creating.

I come to the support of Flash most reluctantly, mind you. Flash is a
necessarily evil, and for the most part we just don't even think of it
when we merrily surf around the Internet, finding new video content to
amuse and inform us. (Unless our plug-ins are outdated or messed up,
that is.)

Flash will bring about the Internet TV revolution a lot sooner than
the misinformed mainstream TV executives will like to admit, too: the
more video that gets encoded in Flash, the fewer hours that 20-, 30-,
and 40-somethings will spend in front of their living room TVs, if
they even have living room TVs anymore. See what has happened to Leno
et al. Their best bits are immediately uploaded to YouTube and watched
the next morning. That is the power of Flash.

But Apple has its own idea about how to watch video, and it has
nothing to do with standards that anyone else creates. It is about
making Web content creators develop new iTunes Apps that can deliver
their content customized for their devices. Anyone using an ordinary
Web browser can be ignored. Granted, they have sold a lot of iPhones,
so it isn't a market that has been marginalized like their share of
the PC market – but still. Why do so many Web site owners want this?
Because of the latest Steve reality distortion field. See the comment
about Doonesbury above.

It is ironic, because in the early days, Apple was a big boost to
Adobe's Postscript technology, the glue that made printing pretty
pages from your PCs possible. But let's not rest on these accidents of
history.

Is a multi-touch swipe worth starting a new war? Maybe. Swiping the
glass for controlling the display is very intuitive. It is a wonder
that more tablet PCs haven't incorporated it yet. In the mean time, we
all will be watching and see how this shakes out, but (I can't believe
I am saying this) my bet is on Flash.