iPhone Users Rejoice: There's a New Video Site in Town

Adobe’s Flash player is not available for the iPhone and may never be. So for almost two years, the only way for iPhone users to get video content onto their iPhones—other than buying videos from the iTunes store-has been for them to download videos from YouTube. But now there’s a new kid in town threatening YouTube’s video monopoly.

A new "magic" iPhone video embed has been announced by blip.tv that will allow iPhone users to upload video. blip.tv’s feature allows users to create their own videos that they can share on their iPhone as easily as using a desktop browser to send videos. There is no separate coding to learn, and blip.tv can point users to an .m4v QuickTime stream of any video they want to watch.

Mike Hudack, CEO of blip.tv, told Wired.com that the company feels it is important for iPhone users to be able to enjoy a full Web experience, including video playback. "Just as important, show creators should be able to distribute video everywhere that people watch video," Hudack says. "This is a meaningful step forward."

And a meaningful step it is indeed. A few video creators may be encouraged to migrate to blip.tv If others are slow to create similar workarounds to the iPhone’s limitations. In the meantime, blip.tv is drawing the attention of content creators by sharing its advertising revenue 50/50 with the,m and all advertising sold and run will be viewable on iPhone-compatible videos.

The workaround isn’t perfect, however. Previously embedded Flash-based blip.tv videos cannot be converted to QuickTime, and they still cause Flash videos to fail. But video publishers can go back and manually update their videos to support QuickTime.

Blip appears to be headed in the right direction in terms of solid business ethics and a clear mission statement. According to their website, they believe that the key to building a sustainable business is "always respecting the law, honoring the community we are a part of, and staying true to our principles."

For more information or to try blip.tv for yourself, visit www.blip.tv.