Since more people are accessing the web via mobile devices (phones and tablets) the
online marketer needs to be aware that there are some relatively new platform issues to consider. Since I do a lot of Flash production I’ll focus on that.
With mid-high 90% web browser penetration the Flash player plugin has been near ubiquitous when it comes to web content delivery. With the advent of the iPhone, other smart phones, and tablets the situation has changed some. Apple decided not to support the Flash player for mobile devices. Early versions of the Google/Android phones also did not support Flash. When visitors using iPhones, Droid Phones, and iPads visit web pages with Flash content they don’t see it. When the percentages of visitors using those devices was tiny it wasn’t much of an issue. As sales of these devices grow at an accelerating pace however; it is becoming more of an issue. So how big is it?
…today, mobile operating systems account for nearly 3% of all Internet traffic. The percentage of Internet usage on mobile devices has been doubling every eight months or so. If you extrapolate that trend, it’s easy to imagine a world in which mobile devices consume 20% or more of total Internet usage within the next two or three years.”
Source: zdnet
The trend…
Here are a few suggestions on dealing with this. Examine stats to find out if a significant portion of your audience is accessing via mobile device. For example if you are using Google Analytics you can go to Visitors > Mobile to find information regarding visitors using mobile, versions (iPod, iPhone, Android), and carriers.
If the numbers are significant then you need to choose a strategy.
Go without Flash
There are ways to use JavaScript to perform many of the animation effects that are achieved with Flash. For the most basic applications it’s probably a toss up on development effort but for more complex projects Flash has a more streamlined development environment.
Use Flash but Redirect nonFlash Visitors
There are techniques to detect which platform and plugins visitors are using and direct them to suitable pages for their particular situation. The upside to this method is that you can provide richer content to those able to view it while still accommodating mobile/nonFlash users to a lesser extent. The downside is that you may need to maintain multiple pages. So a cost/benefit decision is in order.
Keep me movin’
New Android (version 2.2) phones and tablets are supporting Flash 10.1 so that may just leave the iPhone and iPad pair as the “odd man” out.
The combination of HTML5 and CSS3 can achieve much of what Flash can but without need for a plugin (Presumably Apple’s preference for mobile devices). It doesn’t have full browser support yet but is gaining ground.
Hee hee, hoo!
