The San Francisco Chronicle reports that, according to Adobe 7 million iPhone and iPod touch users attempted to download Flash in December, well over the 3 million who tried back in June. We wonder how many of those were for Hulu, and whether rumors of a Hulu app for iPad would change them significantly?
Engadget feels that both Apple and Adobe's competition (competing smartphone platforms that will soon include Flash 10.1, and competing video and rich-content delivery systems from HTML5 to Silverlight which now streams H.264 to the iPhone) are the only ones who will benefit.
We figure technology might as well, as Flash is forced to make less resource intensive, more security and privacy friendly plugins and Apple and others are forced to make and push alternatives.
Case in point, Hulu. Techcrunch and 9to5mac hear a a Hulu app might still be in progress and set to launch in March in time for the iPad. Their videos are already H.264 so no conversion is required, but they make money off their advertising, which is entirely Flash-based now, and would need to either be replaced with HTML5 for a web app, or Cocoa touch for a native App Store app.
Either way, we're still waiting..
