A difference of opinion among developers has become a high-profile debate over the future of the Web: should programmers continue using Adobe Systems’ Flash or embrace newer Web technology instead?
The debate has gone on for years, but last week’s debut of Apple’s iPad–which like the iphone doesn’t support Flash–turned up the heat. Before that, Adobe had been saying with some restraint that it’s happy to bring Flash to the iPhone when Apple gives the go-ahead.
But Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch took the gloves off Tuesday with a blog post that said Apple’s reluctance to include Flash on its “magical device” means iPad buyers will effectively see a crippled Web. And he played the Google Nexus One card, too.
“We are now on the verge of delivering Flash Player 10.1 for smartphones with all but one of the top manufacturers,” Lynch said, specifically mentioning the Nexus One as one such device and adding that the software also works on tablets, Netbooks, and Net-enabled TVs. “Flash in the browser provides a competitive advantage to these devices because it will enable their customers to browse the whole Web…We are ready to enable Flash in the browser on these devices if and when Apple chooses to allow that for its users, but to date we have not had the required cooperation from Apple to make this happen.”
Flash has indeed spread to near-ubiquity on computers, with better than 98 percent penetration, according to Adobe’s statistics. Its roots lay with graphical animations, but its success was cemented by providing an easy streaming video mechanism to a Web that had been plagued with obstreperous and incompatible technology from Microsoft, Apple, and Real.
But a collection of new technologies–including a rejuvenated HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) standard used to write Web pages–are aiming to reproduce some of what Flash offers.
Web standards evangelists for browser maker Opera Software, believes HTML and the other technologies inevitably will replace Flash and already collectively are “very close” to reproducing today’s Flash abilities.
“The Web (including video, games, animation) is too vital a platform for business, communication, and society to be in the hands of any single vendor,” Lawson said. “But it’ll be a while; there is a huge body of existing content that uses Flash.”
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