change  January 26, 2012

Sean Shoffstall, VP Innovation and Technology

I know it’s wrong to celebrate the downfall of another person. But if it’s just a software application, I figure it’s OK. So….hooray. Mobile Flash is finally dead.

Just weeks ago, Adobe announced plans to stop developing its Flash Player plug-in for mobile browsers. The company will instead be focusing on alternative application packaging programs and the HTML5 protocol.

As soon as I got the news, two thoughts popped into my head. First and foremost, my iPhone and I would like to know, what took Adobe so long? And second, how long will Adobe Flash even be around if Adobe is pulling it off mobile devices and suggesting that HTML5 is the way forward?

Proving Steve Jobs Right
If Flash does disappear entirely, Apple customers won’t be any worse off. The truth is, Adobe has never really delivered a mobile version of Flash that, well, worked.

In fact, the late Steve Jobs famously banned Flash from iOS devices. Sharing his Thoughts on Flash, Jobs remarked, “Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards.”

Jobs went on to point out that it doesn’t matter that iPhones can’t view Flash videos because most of these videos are also available in the superior H.264 format. And it doesn’t matter that iPhones can’t play Flash games, because there are tens of thousands of free games in the App Store.

And then he mentioned that Flash crashes Macs. Smack!

Steve Jobs may have left us, but today, Adobe is practically admitting he was right.

What Comes Next?
Standards come and go. Remember Shockwave? It slowly faded away. Will Adobe simply allow Flash to do the same?

If so, what will come next? Will Adobe fully embrace HTML5, simply come back with a modified version of Flash, or go in a different direction entirely? Will website developers use HTML5’s support for semantic markups to dramatically enhance the accessibility of websites? Will they tap into its features for enhancing SEO? For preventing piracy?

And with HTML5 as the new web standard, which other technologies may be on the chopping block?

We’d love to know what you think. Please take a moment to share your thoughts below about the demise of Flash, the rise of HTML5, or the future of web technology.