Now, it may seem like a tall claim to state that YouTube Mobile has switched from Flash to HTML5 just for Apple’s iPhone users, but the fact of the matter is, there are over 1.7 million iPhone 4 users now. Counting in all the existing iPhone 3G/3Gs users, then you have a massive population of users unable to access YouTube content without having to resort to specialized applications.
In many ways, Apple’s statement that the people will choose is indirectly coming true.
Despite the fact that people are not really choosing (they would simply stick to whichever format is compatible at any time). Apple is simply interpreting the successful sales of iPhone products as a vote against Flash and a vote for HTML5; but in reality, people do not even know what is at stake –the Apple iBrand is simply too hard to resist for many.
Regardless, such really is the state of the smart phone industry –right now, there are millions of Apple device users that are unable to access Flash content. And since Apple is too stubborn to provide Flash support, there is only one other alternative: to make HTML5 the new standard.
YouTube Mobile has already taken the big step, but it is unlikely that non-mobile version of the site will be changing the Flash format anytime soon. At the very least, this move might as well mark the shift of made for mobile sites to HTML5. For those unfamiliar with the site, YouTube is a video sharing website that hosts millions of user-uploaded video clips that can be shared throughout the web.
In the meanwhile, Apple is celebrating the success of the iPhone 4. Many retailers and operators are struggling to keep up with the demand, and it seems that the next batch of iPhone 4’s will be arriving sometime this month.
