Even back in 1999, the install base of the flash player was
92 percent of all Internet users.
That page doesn't have newer numbers, and I can't be bothered to find them lol. Quicktime's is much, much lower.
You could encode a high or low quality quicktime movie just like you could encode a high or low quality flash movie, and if you encoded a flash movie FROM an already compressed quicktime movie it would be bad.
FLash 7 uses sorenson video, which is shit, but Flash 8's standard video format is Vp6, which is h.264 based. Quicktime is h.264 based also, so they're basically the same.
Flash is pretty much an internet standard, quicktime is not, no matter how much apple wishes it was.
I can't be bothered to write more lol, nor do I care, QT Alternative works ok.
[edit] [17:28] <Ego> Did you make sure to add that QuickTime player doesn't do anything unique?