Flash vs HTML – Is The Debate Already Over?

Using a computer or mobile device today is as common as eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Most of the time, when people consume media, it is in the form of a video or image. However, do you ever stop to think about what is helping to create and render your media, whether it is an online video game, a YouTube video or even a embedded clip on a web page? The two biggest players that have dominated this industry over the past several years are Adobe’s Flash platform and the open format HTML.

The war between Adobe Flash and HTML really heated up when mobile devices were introduced. Specifically, tablets with desktop class applications and graphics. Prior to the big boom of tablets in the market, Flash was the undisputed leader in creating vector graphics and other multimedia content for webpages. Nearly every web page or online advertisement used the Flash standard and it seemed as though the success of this platform was going to continue for several decades.

However, it changed in 2010

Just as a new decade in the 21st century was beginning, Apple introduced the iPad and really gave Flash a run for its money. The company refused to include Flash in its new tablet, something that seemed incredibly bizarre for the industry to wrap its head around. Other Android based devices were taking advantage of Flash and was building it right into their web browsers. This was nothing new for Apple, which did not include Flash in its iPhone several years prior to the introduction of the iPhone. This even prompted then Apple CEO, Steve Jobs to draft a letter that downplayed the use of Flash, noting that HTML 5 (the latest HTML standard) gave companies the ability to create better graphics and animation without relying on a third party plugin like Adobe Flash.

So, is it really over?

The question has arisen; is the debate between Flash and HTML truly over? Has Adobe failed to make it on to tablets successfully? Or has HTML become the new truly open standard in creating graphics, animations and multimedia on the web? While we’d like to think that this is the case, particularly because we haven’t head too much in recent years, the truth is that the debate is still ongoing but it is a losing battle on Flash’s part.

Flash continues to be brought up when more powerful, desktop computers are used but with the rise of mobile gaming, it is clear that more developers are choosing to create their games using the open HTML5 standard. This is because it allows them to develop games for more platforms without having to code it for specifically for Flash, which is entirely controlled by Adobe.

More Android devices are also beginning to curtail the use of Flash in its devices, joining Apple’s iPad and iPhone, which lead the mobile devices industry. HTML is great for SEO or Search Engine Optimization because of how it allows crawlers that index the web (ex. Google) to quickly access information. Flash is a closed system and as mentioned before, controlled by Adobe so it severely limits crawlers from accessing information. Ultimately, Flash is still a player in the game, especially because there were very few to begin with. Even so, it seems that HTML is winning this debate. So much so, that in the next few years, Flash will be the minority in terms of usage on mobile and desktop systems.