From the time that the websites started to embrace Flash from Macromedia (Adobe acquired it later), I have always made my stand that not all browsers are supportive of Flash. Even till today, Flash has always been my second priority while pure HTML/CSS/Javascript is a much better choice. But with the trend of Flash videos, this is something where I find it really useful because there has never been a standard of playing a video on a website before. This is because of the gigantic sizes that videos typically have, which is at the disadvantage of the Internet speed, even though we have a speedier Internet access than ever. With Flash videos, it has become a standard factor to use since the file is being compiled into an even smaller size, which is much suitable for video streaming.
As Flash evolves, I started to accept Flash as one of my choices to use when creating a website. It has created numerous games in various websites. It’s especially useful in Facebook where many of my friends are playing a lot of games where it is almost impossible to create if not for Adobe Flash!
Now that iPhone has rejected third party from creating a layer over iPhone apps (for easy creation of applications using their familiar interfaces such as Flash), it has effectively cut ties with Adobe Flash from existing in iPhone. It was just recently that Adobe announced Flash support for iPhone application, and Apple has rejected such a support indirectly. I can feel how much hatred has been created between the two companies now. I don’t think we should blame Apple for not supporting Flash… After all, they are still valid to say that third-party programming may cause potential performance problems. It’s a fact actually.
I think it’s all about compromising between speed or to have a potentially wide variety of applications. To the third party developers, they have the advantage of allowing their applications to support a wide variety of operating systems easily. It means that they only need to programme once, and it shall be workable on all platforms! Now, they have to programme once for most platforms, and to programme a separate application just for iPhone OS. I think it’s really to the disadvantage of Apple… But anyway, they are taking over the market by storm! It’s just a matter of time whether the world will continue to embrace iPhone or not in the future… That’s because the lifespan of a mobile phone is pretty short… Moreover, iPhone’s battery is not replaceable… It’s just within 2 years’ time that a typical mobile phone user will switch to another new phone. Who will know what’s the next Apple strategy? Apple has always been surprising me with all sorts of news…
Anyway, I don’t think Flash is dead yet. In fact, they have been embraced by several other mobile phones i.e. Android, BlackBerry, Palm webOS, Windows Phone 7, LiMo, MeeGo, and Symbian… It’s just a matter of time that Apple may go back to support Flash because of another surprising reason.. And I strongly encourage them to support Flash again!
Anyway, I am thinking of getting an Android phone (If my 2.5-year-old Nokia N95 is failing on me… But the truth is that it is still alive and kicking!) Any thoughts about Flash for your iPhone?
Photo credit: archtron
