Adobe throws in towel, adopts HTTP Live Streaming for iOS
Adobe previewed some new streaming video capabilities of its Flash Media Server at the 2011 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) trade show, including new compatibility with iOS devices like the iPad.
Context & Ripple Effects
Adobe's iOS strategy has been a retreat in stages over the past two months. In early March it shipped Wallaby, a toolkit that converts Flash files to HTML so they can run in WebKit browsers around what GigaOM called Apple's Flash blockade — a workaround that preserves Flash as the authoring format but surrenders it as the playback runtime on iOS.
The Flash Media Server preview at NAB 2011 extends that logic from authoring to distribution: by adopting Apple's HTTP Live Streaming protocol for delivery to iPads and other iOS devices, Adobe is keeping its server business relevant even where the Flash Player cannot run. The contrast with its parallel track is sharp — just weeks earlier, Adobe pushed Flash 10.2 to the Android Market and spelled out its Android plans, betting on plugin playback where it is allowed and protocol compatibility where it is not.
First-order effects
- Broadcasters and content owners already running Flash Media Server can reach the iPad without ripping out their infrastructure — Adobe is positioning the server, not the player, as the product they buy.
Second-order effects
- Apple's protocol choice becomes de facto industry plumbing: any streaming vendor that wants iOS audiences must support HTTP Live Streaming, which hands Apple standard-setting influence it never had to argue for. Meanwhile Adobe must maintain two delivery stories side by side — native Flash on Android, HLS on iOS — raising engineering and messaging costs across both ecosystems.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Flash's center of gravity migrates from client plugin to server-side encoding, rights management, and conversion tools like Wallaby — with web video delivery fragmenting along device-platform lines rather than converging on one player.
The trend: Mobile platform owners, led by Apple's exclusion of plugins, are dictating how web video gets delivered, pushing Adobe to reposition Flash from a playback technology into server-side media infrastructure.