Comment by shinratdr

It's not about limiting the audience. HTTP Live Streaming is just a better technology. Watching the keynote it was blatantly obvious. I have more outright pauses in the average Youtube video than an HTTP Live Stream. It required some rapid and noticeable quality changes but I would much prefer that over the video simply dropping out entirely.

The technology is there and can be implemented: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_Live_Streaming

Most just choose not to. That's not Apple's fault, nor is it a reason to fall back to a worse technology that degrades the experience for all watching to help out those on other platforms.

For the record, it wasn't at all limited to "Safari on OS X". Any device or program that properly implements HTTP Live Streaming could easily view the keynote. Apple listed Safari on OS X, the Apple TV, iPod touch, iPhone and iPad as all being verified, but other devices supported it too.