Cheap Videos for iPad a Sign of Bad Apple’s Times?

There is buzz about iPad possibly bringing on a fire sale for Apple’s video. If it is true, it seems that Apple may be dropping television show pricing by half or more, down to 99 cents. This begs the question, “Since when did Apple ever consider price in their marketing?” Price, or compatibility for that matter. They have long suffered a smaller software offering, but when does the apple get too ripe for eating?

I doubt that dropping the price of iTunes will make up for the other shortcomings of Apple’s iPad and iPhone. Without supporting Adobe Flash while Adobe is making strides with the competition puts Apple and Adobe greatly at odds. Although Adobe had a three percent drop in share prices following Apple’s Steve Jobs’ announcement that iPad will not support Flash, it may be too early to tell how this will affect Apple.

According to comScore, the iPhone is up approximately one point two percent in market share, but that may change with Adobe Flash hitting the Android and Windows Mobile markets.

It is too bad that Apple and Adobe cannot play nice, because without Flash, Apple will have a steep path to climb convincing consumers that iPad will revolutionize Web surfing. It may do so, but it is a long fall from the Apple tree if support for alternative video does not increase as quickly as they hope. In the meantime, users will see a lot of gaping holes in their browsing experience.

The obvious alternative to the Adobe Flash player is HTML 5, which is surely in our future. However, considering that approximately 75 percent of all interactive Internet advertisements and 90 percent of video runs on Flash, it will take time. The challenge for Apple may be greater when more people have taken the opportunity to try YouTube’s HTML 5 beta. I am a fan of HTML 5, but after testing YouTube’s HTML 5 video player for about a week, I was very disappointed. Considering YouTube’s position in the video market, it seems apparent that if they cannot lead with a great offering, it could be a while before the rest of the Internet gets it right.

Some would say that the challenge is on Adobe, but while 98 percent of computers connected to the Internet have Adobe Flash player installed, it may be hard to convince content providers to replace such a massive portion of the Internet with the HTML 5 solution. It will take time. Perhaps more time than even Apple’s cult-like following will stand for.

Tell me what you think. Who wins this battle in the short and long term?