HTML5 vs Flash
A while back Steve Jobs wrote a blog about why he doesn't like Flash and will never allow it on his products. I have been meaningto respond to it but have been busy with a number of projects. Actually a number of them were Flash developed apps for touch screens, which was one point Jobs said Flash was bad for. Obviously Jobs' statement below is just wrong.
Flash works exceptionally well for touch screens and kiosks. A lot of clients want their kiosk created in Flash. Of course rollovers will not work on a touch screen, but all websites developed in any language in today's world have rollovers. The majority of DHTML and JavaScript navigation would have the same difficulty if a pop up menu could only be displayed via rollover. It has nothing to do with Flash. It is the way the site was designed and can be a hurdle for any language. Jobs is reaching with this point.
Another comment Jobs mentioned that isn't fully true is that Flash does not perform well on mobile devices.
Below is a video from Adrian Ludwig, who works on the Flash team at Adobe. Adrian demos the HTC Hero and its capabilities with the Flash player. Flash performed well on the HTC Hero. I wonder why HTC was able to have Flash performing well on their device and Apple wasn't. Is it Flash's fault? I think not.
The topic that has been driving me crazy, is Jobs big push of HTML5 and how it is the future of the web. If HTML5 becomes the future of the web, it'll be a far future. Currently HTML5 is about as strong as Flash was 10 years ago. HTML5 may have a future but Flash has been here longer, is proven and will continue to evolve while HTML5 is playing catch up.
Flash's ability to allow graphic designers to easily import their Illustrator and PhotoShop assets into the IDE is something HTML5 cannot compete with. The backbone of rich media on the web is the creative. Creative will never stop using Illustrator and Photoshop. I do not care how much money Apple invests in creating a graphics suite it will never out duel Adobe's creative suite.
In the video below a Flash developer named Michael explains the major differences between Flash and HTML5. The most interesting part of Michael's video was when he was demonstrating the performances between HTML5 and Flash. Jobs claimed that Flash couldn't perform well and can kill a processor. Yes, this can be true if the Flash experience was developed poorly and had memory leaks in the code. That could happen with any language though. It has nothing to do with the language but all with the developer.
Anyways, Michael shows how HTML5 was always using more CPU usage than his Flash examples. While the Flash examples were also a better experience, richer graphics, better performance, etc.
Take a look at the video yourself and draw your own conclusion.
"Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot." ~ Jobs
Flash works exceptionally well for touch screens and kiosks. A lot of clients want their kiosk created in Flash. Of course rollovers will not work on a touch screen, but all websites developed in any language in today's world have rollovers. The majority of DHTML and JavaScript navigation would have the same difficulty if a pop up menu could only be displayed via rollover. It has nothing to do with Flash. It is the way the site was designed and can be a hurdle for any language. Jobs is reaching with this point.
Another comment Jobs mentioned that isn't fully true is that Flash does not perform well on mobile devices.
"In addition, Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now." ~ Jobs
Below is a video from Adrian Ludwig, who works on the Flash team at Adobe. Adrian demos the HTC Hero and its capabilities with the Flash player. Flash performed well on the HTC Hero. I wonder why HTC was able to have Flash performing well on their device and Apple wasn't. Is it Flash's fault? I think not.
The topic that has been driving me crazy, is Jobs big push of HTML5 and how it is the future of the web. If HTML5 becomes the future of the web, it'll be a far future. Currently HTML5 is about as strong as Flash was 10 years ago. HTML5 may have a future but Flash has been here longer, is proven and will continue to evolve while HTML5 is playing catch up.
Flash's ability to allow graphic designers to easily import their Illustrator and PhotoShop assets into the IDE is something HTML5 cannot compete with. The backbone of rich media on the web is the creative. Creative will never stop using Illustrator and Photoshop. I do not care how much money Apple invests in creating a graphics suite it will never out duel Adobe's creative suite.
In the video below a Flash developer named Michael explains the major differences between Flash and HTML5. The most interesting part of Michael's video was when he was demonstrating the performances between HTML5 and Flash. Jobs claimed that Flash couldn't perform well and can kill a processor. Yes, this can be true if the Flash experience was developed poorly and had memory leaks in the code. That could happen with any language though. It has nothing to do with the language but all with the developer.
Anyways, Michael shows how HTML5 was always using more CPU usage than his Flash examples. While the Flash examples were also a better experience, richer graphics, better performance, etc.
Take a look at the video yourself and draw your own conclusion.
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