It’s over. The war between Apple and Adobe has finally ended and the winner is: us! The consumer.
If you bought an iPhone or iPad you quickly realized you didn’t have any way to watch a number of Adobe Flash enabled videos, the most commonly used video and animation tool on the Internet today.
Some said Apple erred in its decision not to include the software in its iPad devices. Others said Flash was flawed and therefore Apple did the right thing by trying to force Adobe to switch to the more popular and some say better HTML 5.
Well, the jury is in and the decision is final, Adobe Systems has released an experimental drag and drop tool called Wallaby that will automatically convert Flash files into HTML 5 code. This equates to waving the white flag at Apple and ceding territory in the battle. A truce has been called and the rest of the world has taken notice. By bending to the will of Apple, Adobe has shown that the company was on the right track when they said Flash was flawed. This doesn’t mean it actually is flawed, or that a sudden flood of HTML 5 coding will suddenly enhance the entire World Wide Web. It simply means Adobe has decided not to fight any more.
HTML 5 does offer a number of improvements over Flash technology. Most importantly for some is the fact that with HTML 5 code your mobile apps will continue to work even when you lose a signal.
For people who play a lot of games on their mobile device an interruption in their connection can make gaming a nightmare. They have to start over or lose data--it’s just plain annoying. With HTML 5 this simply doesn’t happen. Their signals get interrupted and they just keep on gaming.
Wallaby runs on the Adobe AIR Platform and works on Apple’s iOS mobile operating system which is still one of the most popular mobile operating systems in the world. If Wallaby works as it is intended and developers like it, then some web sites may suddenly start working on iPhones and iPads. Which would be a good thing for folks who paid hundreds of dollars for devices that didn’t have access to a great number of web sites.
Most technology experts say the web is moving further and further away from laptops and desktop computers to a more mobile system. If that happens developers will have less and less reason to use Flash in the first place meaning it will likely be set aside in favor of HTML 5 coding.
Are we seeing the beginning of the end for Adobe Flash? That seems to be the message Adobe just sent out to the world.
John is a VIrtual Assistant who writes many guest blogs and articles and has worked in the industry for the past 6 years. To know more about how a Virtual Assistant can help or to find a virtual assistant, visit our website.