Apple vs Adobe Flash Quarrel Convinces Developers to Choose HTML5 over Flash?
![Apple vs Adobe Flash Quarrel Convinces Developers to Choose HTML5 over Flash? [Recent Report Says Developers Interested More in Working with HTML5 than Flash]](http://nexus404.com/Blog/thumbnailimages/alt/apple-ipad-html5TFTSThumb220153.jpg)
Google might have delivered a few blows to Apple at Google I/O, one of them being the adoption of Flash on its Android mobile platform, but that doesn’t really make Adobe’s life any easier.
Apple has some very popular mobile products, the iPhone, the iPod and the iPad, but none of them comes with Flash support. Cupertino also has one giant App Store which inspired everyone else to build app stores of their own, and that App Store is a gold mine for various developers. And as long as Apple will not allow Flash-based apps in its highly profitable App Store, developers will certainly be a lot more interested in HTML5 too.
A recent Wall Street Journal report says that more and more programmers and web designers are considering dropping Flash as their clients want their products and websites to be compatible with the iPhone and the iPad. And who can blame them? Wouldn’t you want a piece of that App Store action too? In order to get it you’d have to sacrifice Flash and work further with HTML5.
Even if Apple will be somehow forced to offer Flash as an alternative for developers looking to create some Flash-based apps, which might not happen, by that time HTML5 will grow even more popular. Those developers currently ditching Flash will probably not return to it in a few years. Not to mention that Adobe itself is offering HTML5 support in its recent Dreamweaver version.
I am not taking Apple’s side here, I’m just stating the apparent obvious. Apple is setting a new trend in the mobile business and because it has so popular products, developers simply have to roll with it whether they like it or not. These are developers hired by others to build apps for them, of course, as independent developers creating apps for themselves could always ditch the iPhone universe and create all the apps they want in Flash for Android.
What we’re witnessing here are some of the first battles in the Flash vs HTML5 wars. We’ll certainly hear more about this conflict especially since Flash is so widely used right now and HTML5 adoption, although growing rapidly, is not yet a popular tool for web development for so many popular websites (Hulu anyone?).
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There are some things you just can’t do with HTML5 that you can do with Flash. In my opinion, iPad users are just being shorted by not allowing them to see the ‘full’ internet.
Compare the Nike website with the Nike iPad website – all they did was strip out the interactive content. Try configuring a car online on an iPad, it just doesn’t work. Try getting free music without going through iTunes – you can’t.
Obviously, you are not a web developer and have no idea how the web works. Flash isn’t going anywhere, and the iPad sucks without it. Google will introduce an Android tablet with Flash, and it will outsell the iPad just like Android is doing with the iPhone.
On the Internet, free always wins.
Granted that iPad/iPod is sexy and gets lots of press coverage. But it’s a minor player in a big market. A goodly percentage of Flash developers are already HTML developers to some extent or another. No one is going to give up one for the other. There might only be a shift in focus.
And I agree with Joe – above – Android will eventually dominate the market. In my opinion Apple has very nearly at it’s peak in market share. It’s downhill from here.
@Joe, Yes, I agree with you and I think I have criticized Apple’s lack of trust in Adobe’s Flash a bunch of times. In fact I did it from launch day.
But this time around I’m also looking at things from the perspective of the customer that comes to a developer asking specifically that his product has to be available to iPhone/iPad. Hate Apple and iPhone OS as much as you want, or even love it for that matter, but if you have a product/website/app that makes money for you and would sell well on Apple’s devices for no matter how long, wouldn’t you simply make sure that the people working on that product, developers, will stay away from Flash, so your company would end up making money off the iPhone/iPad customers at the end of the day?
Again, I am not countering your points which are all valid, simply looking at it from a customer/business perspective. Like in every game, there are rules, which, although popular or not, have to followed.
As for Android outselling iPhone/iPad, that’s definitely what should happen in order to make Apple reconsider things.
The whole HTML5 vs Flash thing is silly. As a developer, I don’t see Flash and HTML5 as equal platforms. Both Apple and Microsoft have came out saying HTML5 is the future. But then if HTML5 were a replacement for Flash, why is Microsoft developing Silverlight, and why is Apple developing it’s own Flash-rival, Gianduia?
Android phones are the fastest growing market. Excellent reviews for Android phones is bad news for Apple. Open Source developers far outnumber iPhone Apps developers and iPhone OS programmers. It’s a no brainer in time. I use an iPhone but not too much longer. They pioneered the touch screen. So? Big deal. HTML5 cross platform issues will be something to consider too. That’s where Flash kills. Companies will pay for where all the action is. Guess what. iPhone / iPad is NOT where all the action is in mobile. It’s a small market. Businesses will spend their money where they get the biggest bang. So Apple just shot themselves in the foot again.