Paul Yanez

On August 31st NewTeeVee wrote an article that is my opinion was simply incorrect - Video: Flash on Android Is Shockingly Bad.

The article was written by Ryan Lawler and in all fairness he did not say things that were incorrect but he did allow a video on his post created by Kevin Tofel that was so biased and technically had absolutely zero creditability. I actually had to respond by not only writing a blog post but by building a demo to show how all the conclusions by Kevin were incorrect. On Twitter, Ryan posts “Having never used Flash on an Android phone before, I’m shocked at how bad the user experience is. Check out the video: http://bit.ly/bHaKkM”. I don’t think saying having never used flash… excuses you from allowing someone who obviously has zero technical cred to voice his opinion on your post.

Ryan states “While in theory Flash video might be a competitive advantage for Android users, in practice it’s difficult to imagine anyone actually trying to watch non-optimized web video on an Android handset, all of which makes one believe that maybe Steve Jobs was right to eschew Flash in lieu of HTML5 on the iPhone and iPad.”

So the million dollar question is how long will it take to optimize web video on an Android handset. I was able to create a significantly different user experience without altering a video or video player in mere minutes. Obviously resizing the controls will help with users actually being able to click on controls but since Flash is vector based, resizing while maintaining quality is simple. I did it here - Flash video on Droid 2. I believe in the very immediate future Flash will be allowed in the iPhone, perphaps SkyFire. One must look not only at the present as this article did but at the possibilities, and Flash is in a great position in the next 6 months to jump leaps and bounds.

Do I blame Kevin for slamming Adobe, I’ve done in the past. But I based my ideas off facts and sinking Flash Player 10 being released several weeks ago as horrible is simply incorrect. The flash developers have simply not caught up to Adobe. And I love it!!!

UPDATE: NewTeeVee’s Ryan Lawler wrote a new article “Is Flash on Android “Shockingly Bad” or ‘Shockingly Great?’”. My video above and quotes are mentioned.