Skyfire iOS browser approved by Apple, converts Flash video to HTML5
A new Apple-approved iPhone and iPad mobile browser from a startup company, set to launch this week, converts video from Adobe Flash to HTML5, though it won't work with Hulu. — The new Skyfire browser will be available …
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple has kept Adobe Flash off the iPhone and iPad since launch, leaving a large share of the web's video unplayable on iOS devices. Skyfire's pitch is a workaround rather than a port: its servers convert Flash video to HTML5 before it reaches the handset, which is why the app needed Apple's explicit approval to ship at all.
The approval is also a test of where Apple draws the line at the App Store gate — and the Hulu exclusion marks the boundary. Content owners can still refuse to play through a third-party transcoder, so the browser unlocks general web video while leaving premium, rights-managed Flash streams untouched.
First-order effects
- iPhone and iPad users get a sanctioned way to watch most Flash-based web video this week, without Adobe shipping any iOS player.
- Skyfire gains App Store distribution for its conversion approach — but only with Hulu's Flash streams explicitly excluded from what it will convert.
Second-order effects
- The Hulu carve-out signals that rights holders, not just Apple, control whether third-party transcoding reaches their catalogs — other subscription video services face the same choice.
- Every Flash view routed through Skyfire is a view bypassing Adobe's own mobile strategy, adding pressure on Adobe to deliver a native path to iOS rather than ceding the translation layer to intermediaries.
Third-order effects
- If Apple keeps approving server-side conversion apps, Flash video's practical value on mobile collapses toward whatever HTML5 can replace it with — accelerating the format's retreat from the web's default video codec role.
- A durable middle layer of transcoding intermediaries between content owners and devices would shift pricing power in mobile video toward whoever operates the conversion infrastructure, a position Adobe currently holds by default and others now contest.
The trend: Mobile platforms are forcing Flash off the client, with server-side HTML5 converters filling the gap and content owners' opt-outs deciding how fast the transition runs.