Adobe has announced it’s killing Flash on mobile devises. Flash haters and technology commentators are declaring Flash to be dead… again. When it was announced that iOS devices wouldn’t support Flash, many of the same people declared Flash to be dead then too. It boggles my mind why people feel the need to choose sides on this issue.
I have mixed feelings about Flash on mobile devices being killed. I have an Android tablet and it’s nice to not see blue Lego bricks all the time. Basically having Flash on Android means I get a more desktop-like experience on my tablet. However, Flash has always been a messy solution to a collection of problems the web has had. Flash filled in the blanks in what HTML, JavaScript, and CSS couldn’t do, but designers and developers wanted to do. It handled animation, video, complex interactions and other client side processes that that the browser just couldn’t do. I’m a little surprised it has taken this long for something like HTML5 to come along and fill those blanks without the use of a third party plugin.
As for Flash being dead, it clearly has a shelf life. Most of what the software does can be done using HTML5. Adobe knows this and is lining up a product, Edge, to replace Flash as I write this. DreamWeaver kind of, sort of already lets you do some fancy HTML5 stuff, both naively and via some of Adobe extensions. But, for better or worse Flash will be with us for along time, regardless of how many people declare it dead. There are certain markets that are going to be hard pressed to give it up, for example online marketing. Those floating banner ads and faux page peel-backs aren’t going away anytime soon (which is really too bad.) Also, Flash may be around a while longer for no other reason than it’s video streaming capabilities (read YouTube’s reasons for sticking with Flash.) I could even see Flash being reduced to nothing but it’s video streaming functionality.
In summary, Flash, it’s not dead, it’s alive and well on the desktop. But if you’re heavily invested in it, you might want to start looking at other solutions. At this point I’d like to remind everyone to get the latest version of the Shockwave plugin. Yeah, Adobe Director still exists.