Flash coming to iPhone and iPad - really

By David Goldman, staff writer


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- IPhone and iPad users' long wait for an app that allows them to view Flash videos is about to be over.

Skyfire, which will be available for download at 9 a.m. ET on Thursday for $2.99, is the first such application to receive Apple's approval for distribution in its App Store.

Despite recently easing its restrictions on the kind of applications that can be approved for its App Store, Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) still does not support content encoded in Adobe's Flash for its iOS devices, namely the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.

Adobe (ADBE) says nearly 75% of online video is encoded in Flash, but Apple CEO Steve Jobs has said that Flash performs poorly on mobile devices and sucks up battery life.

To get around Apple's restriction, Skyfire came up with an innovative solution: When users click on a page that contains Flash video, Skyfire's servers download, render and translate the video into HTML5, which is a Web standard that iOS devices support. Skyfire then displays a thumbnail that users can click on to stream the video from its servers.

"We will attack those pesky blue Flash error messages," said Jeffrey Glueck, Skyfire's CEO.

The app will work on the iPad as well as the iPhone and iPod Touch, though the company noted that it is working on an iPad-specific app that is not yet available.

Determining what percentage of online video is unavailable to iOS devices -- and how much will be available once Skyfire is released -- is a tricky task. Though three-quarters of Web video may be encoded in Flash, that doesn't mean that video is encoded only in Flash. More than half of the videos found online are also available in HTML5, according to a recent study by MeFeedia.

YouTube, for instance, encodes its videos in multiple formats, including Flash and HTML5, so it can be viewed on mobile devices without Flash support.

But one major website that Skyfire won't have an effect on is Hulu, which blocked the app from downloading its videos. Hulu, which hosts TV shows and movies from the major networks and studios, is free for PC users in the United States. But mobile users have to pay $10 a month for a subscription to Hulu Plus.

The app won't translate games or other non-video content that runs in Flash, however. Still, Glueck estimates that the number of websites and videos that Skyfire will open up to iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users is in the "millions."

Skyfire also has a similar app available for Google's (GOOG, Fortune 500) Android. Viewing Flash is already possible on some Android devices, but only those running Android 2.2, which is on just one-third of Android phones, according to Google.

Like the Android version, Skyfire for iOS isn't a standalone application, but rather a tool that works on top of Apple's Safari Web browser.

As a result, the company said the app received a rather rigorous review from Apple, but it was approved in less than two months. Apple did not return a request for comment on why it approved Skyfire for its App Store.

Skyfire first debuted on Microsoft's (MSFT, Fortune 500) Windows Mobile and Nokia (NOK) phones in May 2008, and its first iteration surpassed 3 million downloads. But the program was criticized for bugginess, sluggishness and privacy concerns.

Glueck insists those problems were fixed with Skyfire 2.0, which was unveiled in May 2010 on Android. That app was well received by critics and the public, with more than 1.5 million downloads. The company has received $25 million in venture capital funds, which Glueck said were almost all poured back into building the application.

He also said Skyfire has gone "beyond the norms" to ensure users' privacy: The company collects no personal information about its users, only selling keywords to advertisers, similar to how Google's AdWords business works.

For secured sites like online banking, Skyfire turns off its enhanced Web services so that those sites are rendered on users' phones and not on Skyfire's servers.

"We're a consumer business, so the trust of our users is everything to us," said Glueck. "Our business is not about advertising at all." To top of page

Just the hot list include
Frontline troops push for solar energy
The U.S. Marines are testing renewable energy technologies like solar to reduce costs and casualties associated with fossil fuels. Play
25 Best Places to find rich singles
Looking for Mr. or Ms. Moneybags? Hunt down the perfect mate in these wealthy cities, which are brimming with unattached professionals. More
Fun festivals: Twins to mustard to pirates!
You'll see double in Twinsburg, Ohio, and Ketchup lovers should beware in Middleton, WI. Here's some of the best and strangest town festivals. Play
Index Last Change % Change
Dow 32,627.97 -234.33 -0.71%
Nasdaq 13,215.24 99.07 0.76%
S&P 500 3,913.10 -2.36 -0.06%
Treasuries 1.73 0.00 0.12%
Data as of 6:29am ET
Company Price Change % Change
Ford Motor Co 8.29 0.05 0.61%
Advanced Micro Devic... 54.59 0.70 1.30%
Cisco Systems Inc 47.49 -2.44 -4.89%
General Electric Co 13.00 -0.16 -1.22%
Kraft Heinz Co 27.84 -2.20 -7.32%
Data as of 2:44pm ET
Sponsors

Sections

Bankrupt toy retailer tells bankruptcy court it is looking at possibly reviving the Toys 'R' Us and Babies 'R' Us brands. More

Land O'Lakes CEO Beth Ford charts her career path, from her first job to becoming the first openly gay CEO at a Fortune 500 company in an interview with CNN's Boss Files. More

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.