The choice by Apple to not allow videos to play within a website on mobile devices, has greatly altered the use of video within websites. The concept of a video augmenting text and image content on a website is reduced by this Apple decision. For example, on a desktop computer and browser, a person can choose to watch a short video embedded on a web page or even watch a floating borderless video explaining something as an impulse decision. However, with IOS, the user is making a much larger choice when selecting to watch video. When they touch the video on the page it then opens a separate browser to display JUST the video alone. This now presents itself as an all or nothing decision and if the message is at all a sales message, the user is likely to regret the decision and close the video.
The mind state of such a viewer is , “why do I need to watch this video”. While this might sound like an appropriate response and not something to worry as a business owner, this in fact is a VERY bad direction for the internet as a business platform. Think about TV commercials, where would national brands be without TV exposure. If the viewer had a choice to close a commercial and return to the original programming whenever they wanted, TV advertising effectiveness would drop through the floor.
While we all want the internet to remain an open playground, some decision, like the one about video in IOS devices will have the possibly unintended effect of rendering websites less effective for converting visitors to clients.
