Flash is Dead! Long Live Flash!

Re-posted from its original home on the Algonquin Studios blog.

A lot of news has been made of Adobe’s recent move to end development of the Flash player for mobile devices (such as your smartphone or tablet). Even people outside of the tech community have heard about it and are trying to understand what it really means. I wrote up the details last month (Flash Isn’t Going Away, Except from Your Mobile) and tried to remind everyone that Adobe isn’t giving up on Flash, it’s just changing its direction on its mobile player based on industry trends.

Consider that Apple won’t allow the Flash player on its iOS devices, and that the mobile version of Windows is following suit. Consider that web developers are (finally, after a decade now) starting to focus on standards-based web development and accessibility. Consider how many different mobile devices and browser combinations exist, requiring Adobe to develop a Flash player for each.

Much of Flash on the web has been used to deliver rich multimedia experiences that either don’t translate well to mobile browsers (giant file sizes, areas too small to “click” with a finger, optimized for large displays, etc.) or can be replaced with new HTML capabilities which mobile browsers tend to support now without the Flash player (such as the lowly Flash video player).

Add all these factors together and it doesn’t make sense to push the Flash player to mobile devices any more. Adobe is instead using AIR to allow Flash developers to build native apps on the phone, bypassing the hassle of the browser plug-in altogether and still allowing those legions of Flash developers to do what they do best.

Here’s where people get confused — Flash as a platform isn’t going away. Regardless of the hype you hear about HTML5, HTML5 (including CSS3, SVG, and so on) just doesn’t have the capability (whether via the specification or by browser support) to do what Flash does. Flash is the only technology that can currently do what Flash does for such a broad audience. Its ubiquity across the web (98% installation) has guaranteed that users see what the developer wants, regardless of platform; regardless of whether or not what the developer created is any good.

This doesn’t mean we are Flash-crazy over here. Quite the opposite — we have historically counseled against Flash for web sites for many reasons, some of which are simply because it doesn’t address the goal. As we develop sites that are both mobile-friendly and desktop-friendly, we are increasingly coaching our clients on the right technologies to use to achieve their goals. Our position on Flash isn’t changing because of Adobe’s move, Adobe is simply reflecting the trend.

You can expect to see less Flash in web pages on your mobile, but you can also expect to see more of it behind the scenes in apps for mobile devices. As for your desktop browser, Adobe will release Flash players for years to come and people will still develop in it for as long as it takes HTML5 and its related specifications to finalize the rules and for the browsers to support them.