here’s an interesting video showcasing the Flash Platform being used to deliver a mobile version of the Photobucket site. Before Flash Player 10.1 for mobile’s arrival the conversion effort to support video on mobile would have taken the Photobucket team several months. However by sticking with the Flash Platform the Photobucket team were mobile ready in a matter of days.
Vice President of Engineering Luke Swanson cited cost savings as a major factor. Using Flash removed the need to transcode and store multiple copies of their existing videos in different formats. It was also interesting to hear Software Engineer, Chris Nguyen describe the process of porting their Flash content to the mobile site as “pretty much plug and play”.
I decided to see what all the fuss was about and took the mobile Photobucket site for a spin on my Google Nexus One using Flash Player 10.1 beta 3. The results were pretty impressive although I still think there are a few usability niggles that need ironed out – scrolling on a page that was mostly consumed by a video was a little tricky.
I’m sure the Photobucket team will be looking forward to Flash Player 10.1 rolling out across more mobile devices in the not so distant future.