SkyFire Addresses Flash on Mobile

Sometime someone comes along and demonstrates where the consumer demand really is and show those who ignore it, or think they know better, they have got it wrong. We all know the video platforms of today are dominated by Adobe’s Flash and that some believe that HTML5 is the real answer other that Silverlight will prevail. The real fight started when Steve Jobs declared Flash would not be supported on his iPad, iPhone and even withdrew the built in plug in on Macs. He started a crusade to rid the world of what he saw as proprietary and bad code and like it or not, force HTML down the market’s throat.

When he was forced to back track on one of his other mantras which stated developers could only use Apple tools the door started to open to Flash and wasn’t going to shut close again in a hurry. Not only have Adobe stuck their foot in the door opening but so have others such as Skyfire.

Skyfire have developed a mobile browser that not only enables users to follow links from Facebook,Twitter, iGoogle, but also play the videos shared across social networks. Skyfire success on Android demonstrates that users want all the Internet content to work on their devices and not be dependant on a WiFi connection. When Skyfire launched on Android it added over 500,000 new users in just six weeks and also reached the top 0.7% apps on the Android Market.

It has now become the first Flash playing app to get Apple’s approval. Such was the flood of downloads when it was released in the US that it quickly became the top grossing app and the third highest paid app overall. However their success came at a price in the demand overwhelmed their servers. Skyfire is now officially “sold out”. Robert Oberhofer on their blog said “The user experience was performing well for the first few hours, but as the surge continued, the peak load on our servers and bandwidth caused the video experience to degrade. We are working really hard to increase capacity and will be accepting new purchases from the App Store as soon as we can support it.”

What a nice problem to have!

Skyfire plays Flash video by dynamically coding video files into HTML5 in the cloud and optimizing them for mobile delivery. Skyfire’s cloud technology should make videos play faster and smoother, with less buffering and better battery life of the device. Skyfire’s cloud ensures that each video is adapted to the right bandwidth, as well as the right format.

Yes they still migrate dynamically to HTML5 but Mr Jobs they recognise the demand out there and also have adopted an innovative way to meeting it. The one clear message is that Flash and demand for Flash aren’t going away today.

HTML5, Silverlight and Flash

Whilst many talk of HTML5 being the way ahead they forget the reasons why the likes of Adobe’s Flash and Microsoft’s Silverlight platforms have attracted their own followings. HTML5 will be the future base that is a fact but will not replace the need for Flash or Silverlight.

Silverlights 5.1 new tools enables creators to provide full surround-sound with a video stream, decode the stream and allow users to experience the full 6-channel output. Now that many devices will already be capable of handling the enhanced audio. BSkyB's Sky Player and Netflix both utilise the Silverlight patform for streaming and surround-sound could offer obvious benefit when streaming to HTPCs or internet-enabled TVs.

Corporate IT have previous objected to video video-based applications, arguing that they are complex and expensive to deploy, need a high bandwidth which could impact other critical services such as email. Adobe have now introduced Flash Media Server 4 with several feature which could make video a standard for corporate networks and address these concerns.
HTTP Dynamic Streaming, enables video files to be stored in any available Web cache locations, which means that they require less bandwidth to deliver them to individual users and allows applications to be scaled to service a larger numbers of users.
IP Multicast uses routers to broadcast a video stream to multiple clients across a corporate network. Corporate updates and messages can be delivered as video all of its employees across everywhere at the same time.

Peer-Assisted Delivery addresses’ large-scale video delivery through peer-to-peer networking such that when a user requests a video, the server will identify client with available bandwidth to receive the transmission which in turn can then pass it to other clients until it reaches the user. Thereby spreading the load.

With both Microsoft and Adobe gunning to build media platforms and Google wanting to establish Android as the mobile platform of choice it hard to see how Apple can continue to play the role of King Canute over these platforms.

Want A True Media Playing Tablet?

We are going to see many tablets to compete with the iPad and many appear to be coming on the Android platform today. So Google is going head to head with Apple on the operation system, bookstore, video codec approach and mobile platform.

The Korean Viliv X10 prototype offers some interesting features and clearly demonstrates the level of competition coming. It will have Android 2.2 at launch, which means Flash support. Its 10” 1366x768 capacitive touch screen offers a higher aspect ratio than the iPad’s 1024 x 768 and this could mean a lot to video and games users. The X10 also has a camera, 16 or 32GB of internal flash memory , ARM processor, which is 1080p HD capable, SD card reader, WiFi, HDMI and USB ports. Battery life is claimed to match the iPad’s 10 hours.

Viliv claim that the X10 will be able to playback 1080p video which is again better than the iPad.Interestingly the Viliv X10 can also run on Windows 7, which gives it a further option and pitches in Microsoft support.

So we don’t know the price yet but the tablet certainly is capable of setting the technical and features benchmark, but can it compete with the Apple marketing machine? The one thing that is certain is that the manufacturers aren’t going to give Apple a free run and there will be some serious contenders who all will chip away at those missing elements on the iPad.

The X10 clearly throws down the media player gauntlet but is it enough?

Android 2.2, Faster and with Flash

Android has now attracted 21 hardware makers and 60 carriers in 40 countries and there are now over 60 compatible Android devices. Google claims that over 100,000 new Android devices are activated every day.

According to Gartner Android OS has overtaken Windows Mobile to claim the fourth position among smartphone operating systems worldwide behind Symbian (44.3%), RIM (19.4%) and iPhone (15.4%). Android now has 9.6%, with a growth rate of some 700%, whilst Microsoft are stuck on 6.8%. The interesting trend is away from ordinary mobile phones to samrtphones and Android is perfectly positioned to pick up the existing manufactures business as they offer a multi vendor platform.

Google have announced Android 2.2 and claim that the new Dalvik JIT compiler will delivers between a 2 to 5 times performance improvement in CPU-bound code over Android 2.1 and the V8 JavaScript engine to the Android browser claims 2 to 3 times improvement in JavaScript performance vs. 2.1.. There are also many developer kit new features and improvements. Interestingly 2.2 will support wireless tethering and make it will be possible to use an Android handset as a WiFi hotspot, making its 3G connectivity available to other devices.

The most predicted and obvious change is the support of the latest version of Flash (10.1) which has been optimised to work on mobiles. Android is first to adopt 10.1 which is expected to be soon be available on other mobile platforms such as BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian. Many believe Apple’s open and hostile stance against Flash is right. Many others live in the real world and see the huge potential today to use proven and common technology long before HTML5 is fully comparable.

Google have also stated that they aim to sell music and when a user purchases a song, they will be able to have it automatically download on their device. Similarly, Google is also building a media bridge which will allow users to easily access their home music collection from their Android device.

Android has matured quickly and with Google’s commitment and resources is now a serioius competitor in the mobile space.

Is Appleworld Closing Its Borders?

The iPad is certainly living up to the market expectations and irrespective of the hype and the knocks, it will change the media market and computing as we knew it yesterday.

Today we read that Appleworld have taken further steps to tighten its control and further restricted what software tools developers can use to write programs for the iPhone and iPad. The software development kit will now be restricted to just three tools and any application submitted to Apple that does not use the mandated tools will now be rejected. Some will say that section 3.3.1 of the development licence is now aimed more at Apple's rivals than raising the quality of code.

A new Facebook group called "I'm with Adobe" has quickly gathered some 6,000 members. Ironically, Adobe have released a software package, Creative Suite 5, which can turn Flash code into iPhone code, but under the new terms and conditions using Creative Suite 5 would lead to an application being rejected.

Looking Foreword

Technology has a habit of working in cycles of favour. What is the ‘must have today’ is often usurped by another and another and so on. So were will the Apple competition and threat coming from?

The current eInk readers will only appeal to those who already have them. They look jaded and as we have said before, who wants black and white TV when colour is available? Colour eInk is 'still coming' but it requires the consumer to face a buying decision and that will not be restricted to one technology choice in the future.

Smartphones today are polarising around the three major players RIM, Apple and Android and leaders such as Nokia and Sony Ericson and innovators such as LG and Samsung are struggling to compete in what is now a different world. Players such as Palm came and are now going.The key no longer is the device but its ecosystem and compatibility with others and one's lifestyle.

Tablets are iPad today and the US demand for the latest ‘must have' has now delayed its international release by one month. 300,000 iPad units were sold on its first day and 500,000 in its first week.

Now rumours are circulating that Google are to deliver a ‘computing’ tablet and not just another ‘media’one. The tablet is to be built on its Android platform. This is an obvious threat just as Android is a strong contender against the iPhone and the Android and Apple apps stores are also locked in combat. If Google were to take a similar 'open approach' to supporting other devices that they adopted in the smartphone market, an Android tablet could come on many devices and have great appeal. Rumours are also rife that HP is working on an Android tablet.

If Google were to fully embrace Adobe there could be an even greater interesting situation. Flash remains a major challenge to the iPad and has Steve Jobs in constant denial. Adobe still own much in the file formatting, design, image and open DRM space and as we move from hard to soft DRM Adobe is also best placed to innovate and bring standards and conformity to the market. A Google, Adobe loose alliance who be formidable within the media space.

The camera is also a major issue. After all we all remember that it was the VHS video camera that killed Betamax and a media device without the full capabilities to capture all media is no more than an obvious limited prototype.

There are others such as the German offer from Neofonie which was badly branded the WePad. Do marketing people every consider the connotations of the names they choose?

Microsoft is also out there with Windows 7 and busy looking for a hardware partner, but manufacturers may still want to push netbook sales and not expose them to tablet cannibalisation.

Apple’s ‘use my tools or out’ xenophobic approach may still encounter an unexpected backlash.

Apple Versus Adobe/HP

An interesting presentation from Adobe /HP on their forthcoming tablet with full Adobe Flash and Air support

Jobs Continues to be in Flash Denial

We know Steve Jobs hates Flash and will not allow it on his ‘iP’ platform. He cites bugs, consumption and general denial. If iPad used Flash he claims battery life would reduce fro 10 hours to 1 ½ hours. We sit an listen to the man because he is Steve Jobs but we also recognise his Midas touch might be often goldplated. The launch of the iPad had blue cubes displayed where sites had Flash but it didn’t sdistrurb Jobs as he obviously think we are all wrong and he is right.

Adobe is pushing the Flash media player onto a wide range of devices, with Flash Player 10.1 on Linux, Android and Windows tablets and mobiles. Jobs favours HTML 5 standardisation and pushing its adoption and development use and says that Flash causes crashes on Mac OS and that it has been optimised for Windows. Apple first said it would be adopting Flash then took the decision to ship the iPhone's Safari browser without the Flash plug-in.

Adobe is now working on optimising Flash and Flash Lite for OpenVG 1.1 and OpenGL ES 2.0 and is using Imagination's PowerVR SGX and VGX graphics cores. It is also collaborating on optimising Flash 10.1 for Android, Windows CE and Linux. 19 of the top 20 mobile device manufacturers are now part of the Open Screen Project with only Apple being the major absent. Adobe's Open Screen Project is creating chipset support for the Flash runtime on such as Nvidia's Tegra 2, Qualcomm's Snapdragon and Freescale's i.MX515. This certainly is a game changing move.

Now Jobs is widely reported trying to get the Wall Street Journal to ditch Flash for the iPad. The Journal is not alone in adopting Flash to deploy Videos, slide shows, news, graphics. Jobs says of Flash, "We don't spend a lot of energy on old technology." He compares it to obsolete systems Apple got people to ditch; the floppy drive, old data ports and the CD.

Jobs’s biggest claim is that would be "trivial" he suggested the Journal used the H.264 video compression system could be very effective and cheap on video but is reliant on a privately licensed and patented technology. H. 264 clearly does not fully replace Flash today but imagine the effort to write most of the sites out there today happily running Flash? Imagine the training, the skills acquisition and the integration into the editorial workflow.

To read more on HTML5, we recommend the Gizmodo article, ‘ Why HTML isn’t going to save the Internet’ . We it offering a form of DRM to websites restricting users ability easily capture video and audio content to their hard drives, coupling ads to content and simply doing things it is almost impossible to do without Flash.