Flash, meet H.264

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Adobe just released Update 3 of Flash Player 9. This is HUGE. Streaming video is no longer a laughing matter. Streaming High Definition video will become common place and it starts today.

Everyone talks about BlueRay and HD-DVD, but what they don’t realize is they’ve already been obsolesced before catching stride. VHS is dead, brick and mortar video rental is on life support, and DVD just checked in with chest pains.

How long will it take?

I give Adobe four months to capture 80% of the market share. It usually takes about a year to cover 90% of the web with a new Flash version, but once YouTube and MySpace deliver, the game’s over.

What does this mean?

It means you can cancel your cable. I recently did because I’m getting most of my content from iTunes and YouTube. I paid around $100 a month for cable and watched nothing worthwhile. Now I could own around fifty shows a month for the same price – not to mention most of the stuff I like is free. Let’s also not forget the portability factor :) This is a huge step forward in providing tools to people who need them. Now go upgrade.