Flash vs. Adobe Acrobat Reader: Round One

At Nxtbook,we frequently point out the Macromedia slide that depicts Flash as having 10 percent more penetration than the Adobe Acrobat Reader. This article said some of that growth is due to the ease of creating videos in Flash:

"If you could have told me Google Video, YouTube.com and all these others would use Flash as their technology 10 months ago, I would have said you are crazy,” NPD Group analyst Chris Swenson said.

"I’m amazed at how quickly Flash has become dominant in video,” said Swenson.

Flash has soared from zero to number two in its market in just two years, according to Paul Palumbo, research director for Accustream iMedia Research. Microsoft’s Windows Media format is the leader, handling 60 percent of all streaming video in 2005; Flash has 19 percent of the market, jumping ahead of RealNetworks at about 10 percent and Apple’s QuickTime, with about 8 percent.

"Flash is going to be dominant,” Palumbo said.

"You can embed this into the Web page and it’s instantly ‘on.’  It’s a seamless process. It has tremendous visibility and adoption among the creative agencies and artists,” Palumbo said.