Flash Player on mobile phones is dead. Long live HTML5!

I previously wrote an article on whether the iPhone (or should I have said Apple) and Flash (Adobe) would work in harmony. I felt it was necessary to update you properly on the developments in the last day regarding the long drawn-out sage of Apple vs. Adobe.

On Adobe’s blog yesterday, Danny Winokur (Vice President and General Manager of Interactive Development at Adobe) announced that:

“We will no longer continue to develop Flash Player in the browser to work with new mobile device configurations (chipset, browser, OS version, etc.) following the upcoming release of Flash Player 11.1 for Android and BlackBerry PlayBook.”

Incredibly, Adobe have now conceded that “HTML5 [is] the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms”, meaning their Flash Player will soon become obsolete on mobile devices.

Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple (may he RIP), would probably be delighted at this news after years of public arguments with Adobe over Flash on iPhones and iPads. He even claimed it was a “battery hog” and introduced stability and security flaws. Jobs was always keen to promote HTML5 on iOS as the successor to Flash. It was a bold move but it appears to have paid off.

So what does this all mean for end users and businesses using Flash? Will this be the beginning of the end for Flash as a whole? Well, one thing is for certain HTML5 is here to stay for the long term. Flash on the other-hand could well be phased-out should more websites opt for HTML5 technology. When you think about it, are businesses still going to continue to create websites with a Flash based version for desktop PCs and an HTML5 version for mobiles/tablets? I personally can’t see it happening in future, especially with the cut-backs every business at the minute is making. Also, with reports that more users are buying tablets and phones, compared to laptops and desktops, we could see a big shift in Adobe’s stance on Flash in the future.

Have you considered HTML5 for your website yet, or looked at the amount of users visiting your site on mobile devices? You may be surprised. Many businesses are noticing a big trend in handheld devices. Get in touch with me today and I can help you create an HTML5 version of your site to compete.

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