Is Video About to Get Better on Your Mobile Phone?
Trying to view video on my Blackberry curve is frustrating. Some will show, and some won’t. I’ve been able to view some YouTube videos, but when I try to view the Vimeo clip of me on the race track, it doesn’t seem to work. Although everything’s fine on my PC, there’s some inconsistency in the mobile video experience.
That might be changing with HTML5, the newest major revision of web markup language. In recent weeks, both YouTube and Vimeo announced that they’ll be offering alternative non-flash versions for viewers. Supposedly, some current videos have a link underneath to watch in the non-flash version. I keep checking but I still haven’t seen this feature.
The technical stuff goes over my head, but the reports I’ve read suggest some of the benefits of HTML5.
Flash is kind of a resource hog, so watching video on your computer without requiring flash is helpful. Another benefit relates to mobile phone users. Many phones don’t have flash, sometimes because it’s not available for them.
On the downside, it looks like only a few browsers support HTML5 at this time, but that’s likely to change too. Although we in the US are behind other parts of the world, mobile usage for the whole online experience is growing. We’re expecting more out of our devices, and mobile video is part of it.
It’s been discussed and even used on some level for a few years. But as our mobile devices deliver a more consistently friendly platform, I expect that we’ll start seeing advertisers take more advantage of the technology.
Related articles if you want to know more:
About HTML5:
http://tinyurl.com/y8hm8oe
http://tinyurl.com/yjwmx8r
http://tinyurl.com/p8kfce
About Mobile Video Advertising:
http://tinyurl.com/ydxnx53
http://tinyurl.com/yd3f652
http://tinyurl.com/ye7gcxr
Steve Smart provides marketing help for busy entrepreneurs. He can be reached at srsmart@2Qsolutions.net or 636-699-8772.
March 2, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Seems like BlackBerry has lost their cool along the way. Although it was one of the first phones (if not the first) that offered and HTML based browser via Opera.
Can’t wait to see what they come up. Nice blurb about HTML 5.0 as well. Hopefully Internet Explorer 6.0 sees a relief in that one (does anybody even use I3 6.0 these days though?)
March 3, 2010 at 8:14 pm
Looks like a small percentage of IE users are stuck on 6.0. Something I find interesting is that the sites I analyze aren’t consistent with which browsers are used most often. With some it’s IE, others show Firefox to be the fave.