Kroy's Blog on Video Production and Marketing » steve jobs

Notes on HTML5, Flash, H.264, and Apple

Kroy — Tue, 04 May 2010 15:59:59 +0000

With Steve Jobs of Apple and Flash maker Adobe becoming increasingly vocal about their shit I keep seeing a lot of wrong information being thrown around in regards to HTML5, videos, and Flash. Couple of things you should know…

What You Need To Know about HTML5 and Video

Some people seem to think that HTML5 by itself can play video but that’s not the case. HTML5 does not have some magic little super codec embedded. It merely uses the element, which in turn then points to one or multiple versions of a video. H.264 is just one format one can choose to publish that video in. But this is not mandatory.

So What Does HTML5 Do For Video Then?

The thinking is that HTML5 figures out what codecs your computer can play. It then goes through the list of available versions of the video in question and plays the first one your computer is able to play. Smooth.

Except it’s not because it might still require multiple versions of the video. Why? Because if your browser doesn’t have the right codec and the video isn’t offered in a format for which your browser does have the codec then HTML5 won’t help here.

H.264

The problem then with H.264 is that…it’s not free. The MPEG LA licensing group has a fee structure that publishers as well as creators of encoders/decoders are supposed to pay, but for some reason this isn’t ever discussed. Probably because some publishers are exempt from having to pay the fee until 2015 (was 2010, got extended), so folks think everyone’s exempt. Not so.

So really what needs to happen is that ONE video codec/platform becomes the mandatory standard everyone encodes to if/when they begin publishing via HTML5. IF that codec is H.264 then there’ll be the question of licensing fees. If Apple has its way, H.264 will indeed become the standard. I doubt they’ll pay everyone’s licensing fees though…

HTML5 is not the magic pill certain people want you to think it is. Don’t get me wrong – HTML5 is great and will be the future standard. But it is important everyone gets on the same page with this thing or it’ll just be another standards-nightmare.

Another problem is the fact that HTML5 is just not ready yet. Internet Explorer (unfortunately still the most widely used browser) doesn’t support it yet. I’m sure it will “in the future” but not right now. Apple’s argument is that HTML5 and H.264 is the future and that’s probably true. But you’re buying the iPad/iPod/iPhone NOW and not in the future.

Flash Ain’t Just for Videos

But let’s say all that’s squared away. We still have only solved the video problem. But Flash doesn’t just do video. Yes, Flash is behind a lot of those annoying ads, but also animations, games, and a bunch more. You may not realize it but a lot of stuff you see and do is based on Flash at this time.

You can not expect web developers to re-create all this stuff in other, open formats now just because Apple wants it that way.

Personally, I understand where Jobs is coming from, and I’d love strict standards for video. Makes my job easier. But I also know that HTML5 and that elusive one-codec-for-video standard is far from realistic right now. I think for right now, a device does need to support Flash in order to get the full web experience. Everything else is just watered down at this point, and I’m not paying for watered down web. I’m liking what Android is doing for the smartphone market.

Your thoughts?

Shrinking Steve Jobs Presents the iPad, Seth Godin Cries

Kroy — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 21:09:55 +0000

Update 03/12

Looks like I wasn’t as clever as I thought with the “shrinking Steve Jobs” thing – Rocket Fuel apparently thought of this gag before I did. Well, it is kinda obvious. Regardless, the actual point of this post still stands:

Marketing Tip: Selling Mediocre Stuff

Seth Godin, who (rightfully) says that one needs to have something truly remarkable in order to strive in today’s markets, is gonna hate this but here it goes…

You know, while the iPad has garnered some of the most negative views I’ve ever read from folks on forums and gadget comment sections, you have to remember that marketing is where it’s at.

Mediocre, crippled shit doesn’t sell – unless you’re Steve Jobs. I truly consider Steve Jobs one of the greatest marketers of all time (caveat below…). Steve can present a card board box and we all think we can’t live without it. He is a master at ‘locking in’ customers. Everything Apple makes is ‘ground breaking’ and ‘revolutionary’, even though almost everything they’ve come out with had already been done in one form or another.

Reasonable, well informed people know this. But most consumers are neither reasonable nor well informed it seems. So you need to take this into consideration if you market something mediocre.
But Apple knows how to pull in the masses with the right words, the right design, the right hype, and fostering a cult following second to none in the gadget world. Steve Jobs is a marketing god – which is why even the iPad will sell well. Regardless of how you feel about Apple products, you should study the man.

Here is the problem: you are not Steve Jobs. So mediocre don’t cut it. Seth Godin is right after all…

Seth Godin is one of the most prolific marketers of our time. I have been devouring everything this man has published since Idea Virus and a lot of my marketing incorporates his ideas in some form. Any serious marketer needs to stock up on his books, especially All Marketers Are Liars, and Purple Cow, and check out his blog musings on a regular basis.

Flash on iPad, iPhone Necessary to Watch Porn, Adobe Says

Kroy — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:08:11 +0000

Adobe fired back at Steve Jobs’ bs about Flash not being necessary on his iPad/iPhone/iPod touch toys by showing a screenshot of prominent sites with the “missing Flash plugin” icon taunting the Apple gadget user. Among the images is a screenshot of popular pay site BangBros.com.

Point made, Adobe, well done. Of course the employee who put this up apologized and removed the image. Why? It’s a valid point. Porn, like it or not, is a major part of the web. We can dance around the issue all day long but fact is more and more mobile device users access adult sites. If you have an iPhone or are planning on using the iPad, which would be a great porn browsing device by the way, then you’re out of luck.

At least BangBros.com has a mobile version (which isn’t nearly as complete as its main sites) but many other sites do not. Besides, the iPad would be perfect to access the full thing in all its glory. Well again, ya can’t.

Me thinks not allowing Flash on Apple mobile devices has less to do with instability issues, as Mr. Jobs claims, and more with the fact that once you allow Flash, users could get a gigantic amount of free stuff such as movies, videos (Hulu, for example) and games - and Apple would prefer you pay for everything you consume on your Apple device.

Adobe should stick with this, it is a good point.

No Flash on iPad – What’s the Excuse

Kroy — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:05:35 +0000

According to an article on Cnet, Steve Jobs basically said that people have too many problems with Flash on a Mac and that it doesn’t matter anyways in the future because web video will be presented via HTML5 instead of Flash. So despite massive requests for Flash on the iPhone and now the iPad, Apple won’t budge.

Hey, I love what HTML5 will be able to do. In the future. Flash is pretty bloated, yes. And while I personally never had any problems with Flash on my Macbook Pro, I believe that others do. But you know what Steve, your iPad is going to sell NOW. So we want to watch Hulu and all the other Flash-based video sites on it NOW. Not in the future. NOW.

See, this is the difference between a mega corporation like Apple and us “little porn guys”. If we pulled this “we don’t like this format so we’re not supporting it” bullshit we’d be out of business. For Apple, not having Flash is a feature.

From a marketing perspective, Apple is God. Making a lack of something a feature and claiming this lack is to provide a better user experience (because choice just isn’t good for people, apparently) is pure gold – mostly because a lot of people actually buy into that nonsense.