Dear Col, were life so simple! I know we are way off topic already, but what the hell!
Where I live, there are around 30 million computers, privately-held or available to the public in internet cafes. Around 50% are still XP based, 10% are Windows 2000, 20% are vista - although from anecdotal research, about half of these have been reverted to XP again. The newer 20% are Windows 7 and the remaining 10% seem to be a hodgepodge of Macs and other curious devices. Many of my (wealthier) customers also have iPads, but many others are opting for the Android devices starting to come out because of the limitations of the iPad they say. Except for those with iPads, so far as I know everyone has flash players on their machiens. And I don't know of anyone - other than a few IT afficiandos - who consider upgrading to Windows 7. XP works fine, vista doesn't. And XP is free. Most new computers are sold without O/S to keep the price down ($400 instead of $650 for a new entry level laptop), and nearly everyone still has access to the old XP installations CDs*. I don't know about Apples, it's popular for those who can afford it, the number one reason being... "it's pretty".
The beauty about people who own Apple devices is that seem to be happy to pay extra for good products, so I might just make a special "Apple" version of my courses and charge extra to cover the extra development costs.
I was hoping for a more straight-forward solution: maybe a hack or patch I could supply; or a way to produce web content that is browser and platform independent.
As you say, that will only happen sometime in the distant future when everyone has HTML5 and all the digital movies and audio content have been converted to the new (yet again) standard(s).
Thanks for your help and advice. At least I know now that it can't be done simply. Or that flash might still be the solution, but that only the iPad (or Apples?) will be the odd man out. I'm guessing that the "Apple Philosophy" is to deliberately set itself apart from the mainstream by refusing to endorse the dominant standards. I know Microsoft and Sony do this as a matter of course - and then come up with their own standards that everybody else has to comply with. So kudos to Apple for standing up for itself (I suppose)!
* There are places where Windows 7 can be obtained for free but the cost of the license is only 1/3 of the problem. Taking time to upgrade is the main problem, plus the fact that Windows 7 requires that you upgrade the hardware also, or at least put in (a lot) extra RAM.
I'm spoiled on my Droid.
