Comments Flash has long been an indispensable tool if you want to create advanced interactive web productions that work in all browsers. As HTML5 gains better support, much of what has traditionally been done in Flash now can be done without the need for a plug-in. This is obviously a good thing, although it will take a while before old browsers are phased out and new browsers have complete and standardized implementations of HTML5.
Flash is still relevant simply because the alternatives are not yet sufficient when you need complete creative freedom with maximum reach. That is changing, but it will take time.
But Flash is not what’s interesting here. What is interesting is the explosion and the use of smartphones, and how history repeats itself. This time it’s about mobile applications, but the challenge to easily reach many platforms is still the same. The current situation in many cases calls for supporting the two major mobile platforms as a minimum, and the substantial differences between these platforms translates to nearly double the development costs.
So there is clearly a need to build applications that can run on many different mobile platforms. HTML5 may eventually prove to be such a solution for mobile apps too, but at least for now the progress is too slow for it to be a real alternative in commercial projects. Instead there are other possible options, including Adobe AIR.
With the latest version of Adobe AIR, you can now develop applications in Actionscript or Flex, which can then run on Google Android, Apple iOS and RIM QNX (Playbook). As an added bonus you can of course also still reach the browser via the Flash Player, or your desktop using AIR for the desktop. In other words, one code base can be used in many different contexts. And they are increasing over time.
Of course Adobe AIR will not solve all needs, and you have to know its limitations in order to make the right decision when choosing technology. However, for many types of applications Adobe AIR is well suited.
Adobe AIR is still in its infancy and it has its weaknesses. But with the AIR 2.7 release, Adobe has shown that it is possible to get good performance, even when you target iOS. With the upcoming Stage3D, which allows for full access to the GPU, performance will be even better. Things like native extensions will make it possible to use platform specific features, despite the use of a cross-platform technology.
So even if Flash may eventually disappear from browsers, it remains an excellent cross-platform technology. Today and tomorrow.
/ Nisse Bryngfors
Nisse Bryngfors is a web developer at Sticky Beat, a production agency specialising in digital channels. He works with campaign sites, web sites and mobile applications. You can learn more about Nisse on his website and follow him on Twitter @bryngfors.
Full Ack
You can’t be serious! Flash is supposed to be on the browsers, because it might not win the mobile war.. and shouldn’t focus on that alone!
You can’t be serious! Flash is supposed to be on the browsers, because it might not win the mobile war.. and shouldn’t focus on that alone!
thats completely my opinion. what I like the most: I don’t have to switch and learn all the html and javascript work arounds for problems I don’t wan’t to have. on the other hand mobile development is like stepping back to year 2000 and use the performance for tasks of today
As a developer that has put many years into the flash platform, this post makes me feel uncomfortable.
I was hoping you’d tell me how the plugin is staying ahead of the pack and will stay relevant… but all I got from this is that it is slowly dying and that I’m doomed to repeat the pain of flash on underpowered devices, only this time on much smaller screens.
OK, first of all Flash and AIR are not entirely the same thing, so let’s not mix them please. This should be called Flash Platform, the next step. If you are talking about the next steps of Flash, you should be talking about P2P and 3D!
Mobile is big today, and keeps growing fast, but as time passes and device performance grows web applications will probably be preferred over native.
There are HTML5 mobile frameworks and cross-platform packagers available today that make Flash development the more expensive option for cross-platform solutions (not games).
I can see AIR taking off if the features it has access to are on par with what other languages have access to and if the performance loss is negligible.
Please remember that flash was initially a content delivery platform, for images, audio, video and more recently highly interactive combos (i.e. games), to this extent it excels above and beyond the current HTML5 alternative.
it is also clear that this remains the primary objective of adobe; I highly doubt that it will die in the same vein as portrayed in this article. it is years ahead, does not suffer from standards disparity (lets not forget the h.264 dispute that continues to this day).
A more likely future is one where flash will either absorb alot of the HTML5 tech (and whatever else comes along), remaining a strong competitor in the future content delivery platforms.
Looking forward for some sort of threading support, it is also relevant.