At least two media sites are following Apple’s no-Flash policy when it comes to the iPad. The Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio have produced versions of their Web sites with front pages that do not require Adobe’s Flash, reports say. However, possibly more interesting is how publishers view the iPad experience differently than the iPhone. The iPad, it seems, has jumped that evolutionary hurdle from strictly a computing device to more akin TV.
Kinsey Wilson, NPR’s head of digital operations, told MediaMemo‘s Peter Kafka iPhone apps are a ‘very intentional experience’ where people actively search for information. That possibly is why pages on the NPR Web site deeper than the front page are customized for the iPhone.
The iPad, by comparison, is a ‘lean back device’, Wilson told Kafka. “That’s traditionally the distinction multimedia types use to differentiate between a computer a TV,” according to the writer.
The iPad’s lack of Flash support kicked-off a debate between Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who called the Adobe technology a “CPU hog” and Adobe, which contends the exclusion was merely a way for Apple to retain revenue. Apple’s decision to support HTML5 over Flash was bolstered by an unlikely ally when Google announced in January YouTube would support the competing format.
[via AppleInsider and MediaMemo]
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
