Apple has been pushing web publishers and video platforms to switch to HTML5 as part of the iPad launch. Amazingly, within just a few weeks many publishers, such as Brightcove , have answered Apple’s call to arms.
it’s pretty clear that the one to suffer here is Adobe, or more specifically – Adobe’s dominance in Flash powered video players.

With the iPhone OS4 release Apple are taking this strategy one step further and are getting into both Adobe’s and the interactive ad-networks’ backyards.

Watching Steve Job’s iAd demo today asking “Have you ever seen a mobile ad like this? Anything even close?” (you can watch the whole video in Apple events) I couldn’t help but think that Apple’s app-like interactive ads look very much like, hmm, Flash Widgets.

So basically, Apple’s is aiming for the interactive ads $$ here, and to counter Adobe’s strong Flash developers community, Apple are matching another developer community to strengthen their interactive war – the iPhone developer community.
Just wait until this iAd gets adopted in the iPad and than advertiser would needs to choose where to spend their dollars in – iPad’s soon to be massively adopted ad platform or mobile browser.

Stay tuned, I’m guessing that there are yet many more rounds to come.