I have been thinking a lot about Flash lately. When the iPad was announced in late January, Steve Jobs reaffirmed Apple’s stance on Flash; a “buggy” third-party plug-in that requires too much processing power to run efficiently on its handheld devices. Various news sources reported on Jobs’ brazen comments [toward Adobe] in response to criticism that the iPad and [still] the iPhone cannot view Flash. Something about Flash making the Mac crash all the time, Adobe being lazy, security holes, blah blah blah. Hey, Apple programs crash, too. All on their own. Still, Apple seems bent on eliminating Flash support in favor of HTML5 for video, animation, and some other things of which Flash has been uniquely capable.

Given the fact that HTML5 won’t be completed for years, and it is reasonable to assume that an unimaginable number of existing Flash content on the Web won’t ever be converted, I am perplexed by Jobs and Apple. What will the Internet activists think? Adobe estimates that 75% of online videos use Flash. And what of the non-video content? Educational games for students? Testing and training applications? Revenue generating ads? Maps and navigation programs? There is a strong possibility that some functionality currently offered by Flash will not be replicated with HTML5 at all. So, why is Apple blocking such a widely used technology, with rich content I might add, from its handhelds?

I remember several years ago, when CSS was still getting a foothold, how many designers were struggling with the syntax of tableless layouts. I liked the concept, and somehow knew that separating styling from content was a good idea. So, I spent many hours learning CSS and became familiar with its quirky behavior in certain browsers. The more sites I designed with CSS, the better I got. But, it has been a very bumpy road. Web browsers still render tables for layout, even though CSS is better. Many designers like me are progressive thinkers and understand that technology changes to make our lives better. We are used to learning as we go, and adapting to a changing Internet landscape.

I do want to learn all about HTML5, if it is the future. I mean, who doesn’t like scalable vector graphics? But, I believe that Flash will still be with us for years to come, and eliminating support for it is foolish. Let me run down the list of everything I use Flash for:

• interactive maps
• in-page document viewing
• animated banner advertisements
• interactive photo slideshows (with really cool transitions)
• and, uh… streaming video and audio

You will notice that one thing you don’t see on that list is Web sites. For some strange reason, I never thought that designing an entire site using Flash was a good idea (patting myself on the back now). At the time, it would have taken me too long. And, time was money (still is). Plus, none of the search engines could read Flash content like they can now. Still, I can offer a lot of neat functionality to my clients by creating Flash content for their websites. Time will tell whether Apple and Adobe will come to a compromise to benefit its customers. If Apple continues to block content from its popular handheld devices, I predict it will lose market share.

Filed under: Business