VAN NUYS, Calif.—Critics of the Flash format have found an ally in the founder of one of adult entertainment’s most tech-savvy production studios. Joone, co-founder and director for Digital Playground, is squarely in the corner of HTML 5 as the favored next-gen multimedia platform for delivering content.
While the article’s headline on ConceivablyTech.com is misleading—“Porn Industry to Drop Flash” is not accurate—nonetheless, a compelling case is made for content publishers to support the web’s newest markup language.
With Apple’s avowed stance against supporting the Flash format on its mobile devices, CEO Steve Jobs is poised to ignite a format war—even though HTML 5 isn’t fully rolled out yet. Content publishers on the web, by in large, deliver video on Flash even with its resource-hogging footprint.
ConceivablyTech.com covers this pending content delivery showdown in an article today with extended commentary from Digital Playground’s Joone on this and other subjects.
“It is a no-brainer to predict that Flash will live and die with content,” wrote Wolfgang Gruener on the blog. “If Adobe can provide compelling reasons for developers to build Flash apps, Flash may stay with us for a long time. But if Apple is able to ignite a format war that turns into an either-or decision for developers (no developer will voluntarily develop for more platforms than absolutely necessary), which is the format that is likely to win?”
Joone told ConceivablyTech.com that “HTML 5 is the future” and that exposure would decide the winner of this war. Digital Playground has been streaming content for iPhones via HTML 5 for more than a year.
“Mobile browsers run HTML 5 very well,” he said. “Flash brings everything to a crawl and has an impact on battery life. With HTML 5, there is no reason to show our content in Flash.”
Joone said that he hopes to eventually phase out Flash development altogether once HTML 5 becomes the standard, and that he believes it’s only a matter of time before content publishers fully adopt HTML 5 over Flash altogether.
As for the iPhone format, Joone believes its intimate nature of interaction with the user one-on-one makes it an attractive platform for adult content.
“There is an instant gratification involved when you download content to the iPhone,” Joone told ConceivablyTech.com. “We were surprised how loyal iPhone and especially iPad owners are. Seventy percent of our customers are returning customers. They spend a lot of money.”
