iPad users and the lack of flash

Not really. Most marketers use flash videos embedded on their sites. How are the games in the app store going to kill flash games? They are only usable on apple devices, so I can't see them killing flash games anytime soon.

I also own the ipad and get tired of seeing the "blue boxes" all around the net.

I'm happy that you don't miss Flash on your iPad. However, even if you did miss it you couldn't do anything about it since Steve Job personally decided, he said, to eliminate it on all Apple devices. Many of us like Flash and that's why it is on 99% (literally) of all computers.

Most of us would like the choice to use Flash and not have Jobs make it for us. Jobs sold 15 million iPads... he probably could have sold 30 million if the iPad could run Flash. The rest of us are waiting for tablets that aren't Flash crippled.

There is no such thing as "iPad Video." There is only HTML5 used by iPad and others... as I mentioned, a standard that is a mish-mash right now that is not going to be formalized and released for a couple years. Since there are no HTML5 standards yet, it will be causing browser problems for years to come, and that will affect IMers.

First my rant and then my iPad and Android device reviews...

<rant>
Steve Jobs has not been completely honest about the reasons behind not allowing flash. It actually has nothing to do with battery life. There are other unstated market positioning reasons behind it. And for now they are not providing any additional consumer or publisher benefits by not supporting it. They are simply positioning themselves and aligning themselves and trying to bully the market. This is a strategy that has worked well for them and one that they continually employ not just in regards to flash but also in many markets where they have bullied other industries such as the Music and Magazine and Newspaper industries into playing by Apple's rules. Its interesting, frustrating, and... its just business.
</rant>

I own an iPad. My company has actually purchased 2 so far. I also have developed a product that serves video in both flash and html5.

With the extensive research and development that we have done and the understanding that we have about the limitations of html5 and about the huge demand for flash based content and flash based publishing I will make this statement:

Not having flash causes a huge impact on the usability of the ipad.

From my own personal opinion I would say this:

Surfing the web without flash is like surfing the web with a labotomy.

I also own/use the Droid Incredible... I would not trade it for an iphone if someone paid me. Why? Because it has flash. Its also a slightly better phone than the iPhone.

Now having said that... the iPad is a great device.

Android tablets can vary widely in quality and user experience like the Galaxy which is a complete piece of junk or the Motorolla Xoom which just came out on the verizon network and which actually has a lot to offer and does compete on the same level as the iPad.

The Xoom is heavier though than the iPad 1...

And well the iPad 2 is a lighter device and introduces some things that the zoom brought to the table that the iPad 1 did not have such as video camera and front and rear facing cameras.

As Tim points out below you can use your phones these days as hotspots so it may not be necessary to get the 3g plan with your tablets if you are ok with the speeds that you get on a wifi hotspot from a phone.

So if you ask me "which device I would rather use" what would my answer be?

The new iPad 2 is incredibly light, the iPad offers a better users experience and I believe a more stable browsing experience... but again no flash...

The Xoom with my limited tests of it did not perform well when trying to load flash content... this was not because of the browser but was because the one that I was testing on continually had network connectivity problems for some reason when I tried to load a flash video. The web loaded fine but it killed the connection every time I tried to test on a flash video. This was probably a very limited experience and I plan on testing again.

The Xoom browsing experience and operating system and everything about it was much more impressive than the Galaxy tab. The Xoom runs on Android 3 and is about the size of a an iPad with a great looking display...

But its heavy. If you are going to be carrying this thing around and using it all day that may get old.

Also if you are planning on getting 3 g compatibility you are going to need to compare the different plans ATT vs Verizon. I am not sure if Verizon has the iPad 2 or when they will get it but there are differences in price and overage costs and how they bill overages etc.

In the end it comes down to just what you are going to be using the iPad for. I purchased a 3g one as a bonus for one of my employees. He does not care so much about flash. He uses it every day all day to listen to radio, podcasts, monitor servers, test sites, entertain himself and his kids, and he even made a voip call to his wife on it while we were at a drive through getting lunch. He loves it. He will be upgrading to the iPad 2 simply because the iPad 2 3g is lighter than his Ipad 3g.

If its for the kids to play with, for family entertainment use, if you want to watch netflix, if you want to get access to the Apple app store, and if you are just going to consume video... then the iPad 2 will be the best choice. Its really a nice device.

The html5 video experience does suck sometimes. There are lots of formats that do not work on html5. Its not as good as a flashplayer video experience... but for the most part it works.

There will be video content that is not available on the iPad though.. for example rtmp and true streaming content is out. Its not supported in html5.

If you are a flash developer, love flash sites, must have your flash... iPad wont do. Go with something like the xoom.

For me I use the iPad every day, a little... i browse facebook, the warrior forum, and use apps...

The one I have I purchased for testing purposes because we developed our player Transparent Video Player - h.264 Flash Video Player - html5 Video Player - Alpha Channel Video Player to deploy html5 fallback for compatibility.

If I left the iPad at home my kids would constantly be on it watching netflix, playing angry birds, and playing other apps.

For me the iPad was a testing necessity... its really a toy. Its something handy to have when you need quick access to view a page (not flash) or check some notifications etc. But for me it will never be the device of choice over a notebook or desktop PC.

Its a great coffee table item. Its not a necessity... in fact I can do more on my Android phone than I can do on the iPad 1.

Unfortunately for publishers the same is not true. Html5 video has limited functions and behaviors available and some things you can do with flash... like actual rtmp streaming and direct response functions are not supported in html5.

You cannot even auto play an html5 video on your webpage.

I haven't tried these apps personally, after almost a year of owning an iPad I've not felt it's been a big deal in terms of my user experience.

I agree with Josh, it isn't a necessity and it doesn't take the place of a PC or a laptop.

While it does work with a lot of flash videos it does not work with all or "any" flash videos as you put it. This is because they transcode videos on their servers which can also be a slow process. Also other types of flash content are not supported. Cool browser... But not a good alternative to flash. Better to watch video in safari in html5 since most are supporting html5 video fallback now.

I don't have an iPad but I regularly browse the Internet with plugins disabled, which includes Flash.

Doesn't affect me much at all. Perhaps 95-99% of the sites I visit don't use Flash or don't use Flash for anything important.

So, I don't imagine browsing the Internet on an iPad would be any different.

Flash? Hand me the gun and I´ll shoot it.

Consider how much long-term damage it did for siteowners when it was the rage and everyone wanted a flash site. Probably 90% (more?) of those sites have been redisigned away from flash because in the end it limited the site potential. Big and small sites. Private and multinational corporate entities. Same story. It may have been easy to make it look good but it was equally easy to clobber the visitor with bandwidth drain and shackle them into timed sequences when all they wanted was the contact info to make a purchase.

Complex sites required the owner to keep both a content team and a dedicated flash team and dedicated flash development tools. Flash was a conspiracy.

It sucked. It still sucks. Kill it. :p

Apple products are toys. In 5 years we'll be laughing that consumers let Apple out of their box again.

Apple products are high quality ego-boosting art pieces for it's head narcissist. Their cell phone has been dominated in short order by Google and their PC line has had nothing really spectacular to differentiate itself from WINBoxes.

LOL - good one.

Technically, it wasn't even around in 1985 (you sure you aren't talking about Atari?), but you could say it's sooo 1996 since that's when it first appeared on the scene.

You mean browsers not windows. Flashplayer works fine with 64 bit windows OS. But some 64 bit browsers it does not in the current full release version

However, they do offer beta versions that do work with 64 bit browsers:

Download Flash Player "Square" Beta Preview Release - Adobe Labs