The Internet is re-shaping itself as we speak. No longer is it a place for users to simply read content or watch videos, but it has evolved into becoming a dynamic and rich medium that allows users to interact with each other.
As millions of people glued their eyes to the television with the news regarding Joe Paterno and Penn State, one company recently released some big news that echoes that change.
Software company Adobe Systems Incorporated pulled the plug on its highly popular Adobe Flash platform for mobile devices on Nov. 9. The company will still develop Flash for desktop browsers, but it announced that it will rather develop content that utilizes HTML5 content and Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) for mobile platforms.
In addition, the company will still make minor updates to fix bugs and other issues, but they will no longer invest in developing for Flash.
What does this mean?
In future software releases, Android smartphones and countless tablets will no longer support Flash in their native browsers. For instance, some videos won’t play and games powered by Flash will no longer be supported on mobile devices. A couple of sources say this process might take some time. But it’s very clear now which direction mobile devices are delivering their rich media applications: through HTML5 content and standalone apps.
The news, however, doesn’t affect iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users because Apple refuses to integrate Flash into its mobile devices and instead rely on HTML5 and rich apps to power its content. The late former Apple CEO Steve Jobs notoriously denounced Flash and endorsed HTML5, which he said was the new web standard.
And he was right.
Today, more and more Web developers are beginning to develop content for HTML5. Very few still develop for Flash, which has seemingly become obsolete with its inability to crack search engines and the lack of support for mobile devices such as the iPhone.
HTML5 content also looks cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing to the eye than sloppy Flash-animated graphics. It runs smoother too. With Flash, some websites take much more time to load than HTML5-powered websites.
Pulling the plug on Flash for mobile devices has probably been the smartest business decision that Adobe has made in its history.
Don’t be surprised if in the next two to three years that Adobe could be calling it quits with Flash all together. The Internet, an already powerful medium, is evolving yet again.
