Flash On Mobile Device... The Verdict

mac voyermac voyer
Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
Ran across this article this morning. It looks like Jobs was right. Turns out, Flash sucks. To me, the most interesting thing about the article is the revelation that videos and games that worked well on the writer's Android device were optimized specifically for mobile devices. In other words, there was no difference in the amount of work content owners had to do to achieve an acceptable Flash experience and an HTML 5 experience.



I have been wondering why I have not seen any victory dances from Apple haters on this subject since Flash for phones was made available. Now, I know why. Does this represent the final nail in the coffin for Flash, or are there reasonable counter arguments from the Flash side of the fence?



Thoughts?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 2
    kingofsomewherehotkingofsomewherehot Posts: 4,180member
    Flash probably still has it's place on a desktop/laptop... there are things Flash can do that HTML5 cannot.



    I'm of the opinion, though, that if a developer can do it with HTML5 then that should be the platform of choice... save Flash for the stuff that actually NEEDS its expanded capabilities. The web developer SHOULD try to use the least proprietary platform he can (that will still serve his needs.)
  • Reply 2 of 2
    asianbobasianbob Posts: 797member
    I'm in agreement with the article's author. At the moment, I find Flash on mobile devices a mixed bag. Some of the heavier, non-optimized stuff runs slow at times, but it's still nice to be able to run Flash videos that are embedded.



    It's useful to me because my company either doesn't install the latest version of Flash for us or blocks it across the board because of productivity reasons. It's nice to be able to run to the same site on my phone and view the video right there.



    It also helps when viewing certain websites that mainly use Flash for their interface. While at the moment it is jerky, I at least can still view the site and get the information I need.



    To me, Mobile Flash isn't yet a failure nor a success. It does suck that most non-mobile optimized games don't work well because they're written for the more complex input of a desktop/laptop. It's still a relatively new thing (for mobile devices) so I'm willing to give it some time to see if Adobe can improve it. If they can't and it dies, then it dies in the mobile world. My phone has the ability to use HTML 5 too, so there's no biggie if everyone moves to that. At the moment, I'm just enjoying the ability to use sites on-the-go I normally would have to break out my laptop for.
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