Vimeo's HTML5 Universal Player works on iPad, iPhone, Android

Vimeo debuts HTML5 player for Apple iPhone, iPad, and Android. The Universal Player is actually many players. Depending on the capabilities of the browser, it may use Flash, a native player, or HTML5. Starting today the Universal Player will work on HTML5 devices like the iPad and iPhone. Soon it will also serve the HTML5 player to desktop users.

The Universal Player is as easy to use as the old embed code, just a lot more compatible. Instead of being a direct link to a Flash player the new Universal Player can automatically detect what kind of device is viewing the video and choose the optimum player based on the device's capabilities. For example, it will serve mobile video to iPhones and Androids and HD to iPads and Desktops. On other mobile devices it can use the native player of the device or an optimized mobile Flash player with bigger controls. It also allows us to introduce new players as technology changes, potentially allowing us to do things like serve HTML5 to IE9 and WEBM video to Firefox.