The late Steve Jobs once called Adobe’s Flash system “a spaghetti-ball piece of technology” and his disdain fuelled Apple’s decision to ignore Flash compatibility across all of its mobile devices from iPhones to iPads.
While this was no doubt one of the last nails in the coffin of Flash, Adobe has now announced that there would be no further development of the framework for any mobile browsers. Instead the group will focus Flash on the development of native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores.
There is a likelihood that this move will handicap Apple competitors hoping to vaunt Flash compatibility as a selling-point of their new tablets or handsets. But ultimately, there will be still a level-playing field for whoever produces the best device to display Flash’s successor - HTML5.
HTML5 has continually grown in acceptance by developers, allowing the easy integration of Flash-style effects with WC3-friendly code. Google prominently displayed the power of HTML5 in a recent Easter egg, by getting users to type “do a barrel roll” (an in-joke referencing a much-repeated line from Peppy Hare in from the N64 game ‘Starfox’) into the search box to see the screen rotate.
MEC opinion: As a programming language, Flash will live on and will likely be the source of some of the most popular games and applications over the coming years.
While it may not be a presence on the online landscape anymore, the functionality it once provided will live on as a reminder of its major influence in the development of internet video, widgets and gaming.
