iPhone playability makes a BIG difference to the Viddler v. YouTube question
Now I’m not hugely technical but what I notice is that Viddler videos don’t show on the iPhone whereas YouTube ones do.
Something to do with one using Flash and the other not? Hey – I don’t know. What I do know is the difference this will make to the average punter.
Trying to view a Viddler video on the iPhone results in a message telling you your browser doesn’t have Flash installed.
The problem is that your iPhone browser is just that – an iPhone version of Safari. You can’t install regular Flash player for it.
At this point most people will give up or worse, get sucked into the endless FAQ hell of the ‘why doesn’t iPhone work with Flash’ debate.
Looks like I’ll be recommending to clients that they take the YouTube fork in the road. Add to that the fact that YouTube is now the second most widely-used search engine and it starts to look like a no-brainer.
Flash is coming for the iPhone, we may see it announced with the release of version 3 software due at the end of June.
Safari Mobile on the iPhone can detect youtube embedded within the page and presents the alternate quicktime interface. Even if viddler were to support iPhone streaming Safari wouldn’t detect it unless Apple opted to update Safari mobile too.
I believe with Javascript embeds that you can “flip” to quicktime. This would only play in Quicktime though.
More investigation needed here.