Apples iPad will be launching the first week of April 2010.  As a result customers, clients and visitors may be visiting your web site with this new device.  What does this mean?

If your site uses Adobe Flash or is built entirely of Flash - Flash features and content will not work nor features displayed. 

Similarly, iPhone users visiting sites with the built-in Safari web browser may not see full site content where Adobe Flash is utilized.

Apples iPad and iPhone do not support Adobe Flash, nor are they expected to. This means your visitors will see your site in a partial state of design or they might not see the site at all on either of these devices.

If you feel that your target market will be using such devices to visit your site, you, in conjunction with your developer, must decide how best to approach a solution so that your site remains usable.  

There is no viable alternative to Adobe Flash currently relative to its cumulative features, wide internet usability and, as a developer resource to execute design, animation, video and other functionality relative cost effectively in one platform. 

• Complete Site Re-development
• Re-development of only those areas of the site utilizing Flash
• Enabling a place holder for alternative a static content graphic in place of the Flash element.
  
• Device detection and presentation of a "custom" page(s) specific for the device
• For Flash-only sites or heavily dependent on Flash, the creation of an HTML only (sans-Flash) alternative for the visitor.

Site Rebuild - The most extreme solution and not performed overnight.  If there have been discussions and thoughts about a rebuild, the inclusion of Flash should now be weighed more carefully with the site design and layout.

Sectional Redevelopment - A practical solution, unless your primary navigation is Flash and further complicated by dynamic content in the Flash presentation.  Must be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.  Such analysis and problem/solution solving may affect the entire site architecture.

Enabling A Place Holder For non-Flash Content - In the development of Flash elements in sites, this concept is often overlooked or purposely avoided because of time or costs.  It requires creating unique content for each Flash movie space.  The placeholder container for the Flash movie must also be enabled / configured for graphic substitution.  There have been a number of variations in this placeholder code over the years.  On older sites, all placeholder code should be updated. 

Device Detection and Custom Pages - This concept should be avoided except for a single landing page, a temporary page, or if practical presenting alternatives to sectional elements only, but not core structure and content.  Avoid the thought of detecting for a device and creating a mirror site just for that device.  One page - ok. Multiple pages = $$$$ and ongoing content administration headaches.  

The single landing page idea - means detect for the device and present a one page summary.  Good for company overviews, product specifications, and such.

Presenting sectional content based on the detection of the device/platform is doable, but may impart a substantial amount of time / cost for creating and testing the various alternative results.  For many small businesses, the additional costs may not be practical for a site project.

Develop an alternative HTML-only (no Flash site) - This may be a viable alternative for those that currently have or do want a full Flash presentation. Either by a static link "Visit HTML Version" or by device/platform detection (referenced above), the visitor will experience a "second" site.  This requires the design, layout, and administration of a second site.  Its a variation on the device Detection and Custom Pages concept above, but the end result is a totally separate and "static" no-often changed content.

HTML 5 The Future.  Not here yet.  Most web browsers in the hands of users today, are not HTML5 compliant. The newest down-loadable or upgradable web browsers as of April 2010 including Firefox 3.6, Opera, Chrome, Safari and IE 8 are partially to fully compliant. Results remain mixed.  Keep in mind that the majority of users are using web browsers that are a year to two years old.  Only this year did IE6 become unsupported by Yahoo, Google, and Gatman Services.