In what has to one of the least surprising surprise developments in the online video market, rumors are swirling that Hulu will in fact be able to play with the iPad when Apple's latest game changer hits the street.
Hulu-ites have been wringing their hands in despair ever since the Flash-less iPad was announced because Hulu content currently can only be played on devices that support a Flash player. Apple's Steve Jobs is not a Flash fan. In fact, he hates Adobe's baby; Jobs is certain HTML5 will be the straw that breaks what he says is a buggy player that also happens to be a memory hog and one that eats up processor resources.
The Tech Crunch blog today became the latest site to report rumored rumors that the folks at Hulu are working overtime to make sure the site will work with the iPad. That makes a lot of sense. The iPad eats up videos encoded in h.264, which Hulu's post-2007 library already is. So, you can hold your breath waiting for Hulu to be iPad ready... it won't be long.
Hulu's move to become iPad friendly really is a no brainer. The iPad is poised to become the tablet on the market, and even before version one has hit the street rumors on improvements already are starting to circulate. The latest? Apple's adding a camera that will be capable of still and video capture, making it even more online-video friendly. Think the folks at Cisco are starting to worry about their Flip? All the iPad needs is a little pop up USB plug and it's in business.
Hulu in December became the first non-Google property to record 1 billion video views. With a device like the iPad in its pocket, and a cadre of video-happy iPad owners in tow, Hulu stands a good chance of hitting 2 billion in no time at all.
For more:
- see this Tech Crunch blog entry
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