Porn–in whatever format–will hardly be the sole driver of iPad success.
You can bet many sites’ll be wrapping video content in iPad-friendly code before too long, and charging visitors handsomely for the privilege (or embedding the sites with ads, and making a profit this way.) Then, because HTML5 video is also compatible with desktop browsing too, Flash might well go the way of Betamax and HDDVD. But if there’s one single industry which is agile–aggressively so–and ready to quickly adopt a new technology fast in order to make a quick buck, it’s the adult content industry. It’s already testing out a non Flash-powered video delivery system that makes use of the open-format HTML5 system (which Safari supports) which will most likely supersede the proprietary Flash system in a few years. Well, yes, you’re right: Google, with YouTube. But the iPad has a 9.7-incher…And who do you think is going to seize that opportunity, with potentially tens of millions of customers? And while there’s been some effort to accommodate non-Flash systems, aimed specially at iPhone porn surfers, the iPhone’s small screen doesn’t really lend itself to the job. Flash video is one of the key technologies to transmit porn on the Web, currently–a fact that Adobe itself even played up in a post slating the iPad’s “broken link” and showing a screenshot from Bang Brothers. Safari is, however, perfectly capable of tackling normal Web pages…as long as there is no Flash, as the long-running and silly battle about this rages on. The iPhone’s led the way here, with many Web sites delivering porn photos and videos in a format compatible with the devices’ Mobile Safari browser. And where you have the Internet, you have porn. But the mobile Internet is one of the iPad’s biggest selling points. Where, exactly, does pornography fit in here? Not likely in the form of apps–Apple’s always maintained a fairly stiff line on adult content in the app store, and has recently gone on a highly puritanical purge to remove apps that are even mildly suggestive, resulting in over 5,000 apps being ditched from the app store. To publish pornographic writing and imagery. One of the first popular uses of the printing press was Going back further, porn was thriving at the dawn of cable TV and photography itself. Broadband crushed slowĭial-up in part due to users’ hunger for speedy, sexy data…porn. Pornographic Web sites test drove online payment systems as ways to make quick bucks whileĮveryone else bit their nails and waited years for PayPal.
And it’s a business that’s always lookingįor new and novel ways to deliver its product through systems thatĪppeal to its consumers–the one who gets there quickest gets theīiggest share of the booty. Its laser-like focus on cash has given porn an edge in technology development history. Widespread adoption by the porn industry also helped Blu-ray’s success Remember the famous tape format battle between VHS and Betamax (the technically superior system)? VHS’s convenience for porn producers’ partly resulted in it becoming the dominant video system.
If you’re a worker in the TV, video, or computer industry, it’s one of the key drivers behind some of the tech you use on aĭaily basis.
Like it or love it, there’s no denying the power of Internet porn. (The following is perfectly safe for work.) Come March, porn will help the iPad rock. Apple can posture and ban sexy iPhone apps and Suicide Girls all it wants.