Re-evaluating for the iRevolution

30/03/10 posted by Liz Niland

If you don’t have an iPhone, don’t use an iMac and really can’t see why everyone is in a flap over the iPad, you may not have considered the implications the iRevolution could be having on your business, both positively and negatively.

While you’ve no doubt heard about the hoopla surrounding the lack of Flash support on the iPhone and now the iPad, have you considered the way your own site’s web design displays on such devices? While many web design and development agencies are becoming increasingly conscious of building sites that are fully-usable on all platforms, older sites, or those that include some custom features, may need reassessing.

One option many forward-thinking web developers are headed towards, including those behind giants such as Youtube, is HTML5. The movement towards this Flash-replacing code is surging ahead with news out this week that video platform Brightcove “will stream in an HTML5 video player when it detects an iPad”. As reported on TechCrunch, the company’s CEO Jeremy Allaire isn’t against the use of Flash but he can see that technology like HTML5 is required for optimal one-size-fits-all content.

On the other side of the debate though, word around the tech-blogs is that Google may be seeking a partnership between their Chrome browser and the Adobe Flash platform. With the Chrome OS looking like launching later this year, MC Siegler is thinking this budding partnership may raise its head in future talks of the operating system’s plug-in logistics. Conversely though, if you wish to forget about the coffee date had by Mr Google and Mr Apple and join the cynics cheering on the clash of the titans, you could be thinking Google are looking want to win back Flash fans, before Apple gets them to convert to HTML5.

And while hardly anyone outside the upper echelons of technological society have been able to bear witness to the iPad, Apple have unveiled a suite of guided tours to slightly sate the epic global hunger for the device. If you thought your old-school website could get away with glitches on the tiny screen of an iPhone, it might be time to look at freshening up your web design before the glitches become magnified across the iPad’s 9.7-inch high-resolution screen.