The Future of Flash Content
Posted in User Experience,Web Development,Website Design by Bridgeline Digital on February 11th, 2010
Continued lack of Flash support on the iPhone OS means it's time for web creators to adjust.
The recent unveiling of the iPad brought one glaring truth to the attention to the web community: Apple does not like Adobe. That might be a bit simplistic, but the fact of the matter is that the iPhone OS has never supported Flash and in the public unveiling of their new “magical” uber internet device, still no Flash support. Of course, Apple is the leader in controlled computing experiences, so it makes sense they would avoid Adobe’s technology, especially since it compromises the security and stability of their devices.
How it Impacts the Web Community
So how is this impacting us as web creators or as web stakeholders? With more and more iPhone OS devices being sold, for the first time, the number of Flash-capable devices is actually decreasing. Couple that with jQuery’s rise to prominence and HTML5 on the horizon, all of the legs Flash stands on (wide-ranging user acceptance, dynamic animation, video content) are about to be knocked out.
This doesn’t mean that we should stop using Flash completely. Instead, it would be wise to look back to the time before the Flash plugin was installed on every able-bodied internet-accessing computer. The time has come to reconsider Flash-free alternate content pieces. Depending on your site and users, it may make sense to have a static, jpeg-based version of your fancy, Flex-powered chart. Or, maybe a Javascript solution can approximate the animation that appears on your homepage.
Whatever solution you choose, it’s important to understand the future of the internet is built on standards-compliant, fully accessible content that scales gracefully from desktop to mobile devices to televisions. Why not make informed choices today and get ahead of the curve?
Written by Matt Moore
Great post, Matt. YouTube actually has an HTML5 player ready to go for people using the latest Chrome and Safari versions: http://www.youtube.com/html5
The future for Flash does seem bleak. It sounds wise to plan now for a post-Flash world.
How will iApps make this translation easier? Browser sniffing and delivery of HTML5 versions to those with adequate setups? Convenient front ends for javascript slideshow production?
Rob,
The HTML5 specification has come a long way but still does not have a widespread adoption by major browsers. I cannot speak for the iAPPS R&D team, but since HTML5 is arguably still in its infancy, I don’t have any specifics on how it will be handled.
While there are more and more headlines announcing the “death of flash”, it will certainly remain on the web for some time, similarly to Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) which Microsoft is supporting until 2014!
It’s exciting to hear about the native implementation of audio, video, and drag and drop in HTML5, and when more user agents become more standardized, web content will be accessible to more people on more devices.
Richard Branson has chosen sides too…
Virgin America Ditches Adobe Flash for New Site
http://mashable.com/2010/03/03/virgin-america-ditches-flash/
Another nail in the coffin?
Apple Winning the Flash War: New York Times’ Video Engine Goes iPad Compatible With HTML5
http://www.fastcompany.com/1600448/apple-ipad-html5-nyt-brightcove-times-adobe-flash-web-code
Apple has released a list of “iPad ready” websites: http://www.apple.com/ipad/ready-for-ipad/