Brightcove fills iPad’s Flash hole with HTML5

No Flash on the iPad? Brighcove says it’s no problem because it is bringing out a technology that will enable publishers to bring rich, Internet video experiences to devices like the iPad or iPhone.

The Brightcove Experience aims to make it easier for publishers to detect which device is trying to access the content and then use the H.264 format to playback the video if it can’t use Flash. The service will be used by The New York Times to make its website iPad-ready, so we should be able to get the full experience of the site without Flash. This is another interesting step in the war on Flash, as the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad are expected to grab a sizable market and Steve Jobs is not interested in having Adobe’s technology on it. While the number of Flash-capable computers dwarfs the number of non-Flash devices, the iPhone/iPad users are a highly-coveted demographic.

“Now we have seen the incredibly broad adoption of devices such as the iPhone (and soon the iPad) that do not support Flash, but do support the HTML5 standard,” Brightcove said in a blog post. “Many device platforms have pledged to support Flash video, but the adoption of non-Flash devices is expected to be broad enough that many publishers are worried that they will be missing a substantial audience if they rely exclusively on a Flash-only strategy. That is driving publishers to look for ways to deliver an equivalent video experience to what they can offer with Flash, but implemented using the HTML5 standard.”

Don’t think Adobe is going to sit still and let Apple eat its lunch. The company has released a converter that will enable developers to program in Flash and automatically convert it to the iPhone software development kit. Adobe also will eventually have a full version of Flash on Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Phone 7 Series, which could put pressure on Apple.

[Via Brightcove]