Adobe added Flash to its design stable a few years back when it laid out a few billion for the Macromedia company. The movie-making product has delivered big time, revolutionizing the web (think YouTube and innumerable sites enhanced with moving graphics, like PubArts.com).

But there have always been grumbles about the Adobe powerhouse – chiefly, that it is a power hog and dominates computer CPUs.

Now the volume is turning up, as Apple’s newest hot gizmo, the iPad, will not support the software. Neither does the iPhone. Trouble for Adobe?

There are competitors to Flash. Called the H.264 standard and HTML5 video, these options are turning heads, including those at major content producers like The New York Times and Time Inc. that are choosing it to develop dynamic or moving content for the iPad (reported in Ars Technica, 4/3/10)

Re-encoding Flash videos won’t necessarily be easy or cheap, especially if one has hundreds or thousands of hours of content. The H.264 standard requires a license from MPEG LA to use, but Brightcove and other online video platforms can re-encode content for free.