Flash is dead, mobile at least.

  • Hi
    Well the time has finally come, and Jobs wish has come true.
    Adobe is abandoning development of mobile versions of Flash.
    It's not hard to see that Adobe is just starting to abandon Flash and that Flash altogether is starting a slow demise.

    Klaus, what are your thoughts on the subject?

  • Another step was, no support for the default (metro) browser in windows 8 Heads up: Windows 8! No more Flash

    And adobe now has a package, called Edge, thats supposed to repalce flash on some levels: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/edge/?promoid=JAYKR

    But on the other hand, flashplayer 11 came out with a massaive 3d engine. So perhaps flash is going to be a 3d application for the web. Alsoo atm banners are still made in flash (google only allows swf or gif) and it would be hard to have animated javascript banners distributed well.

    You alsoo see a rise of HTML5 CCS3 compatible browsers. So the ipad version has a fighting chance. But on the other hand a big part of the users dont have html5 compliant browser and dont even know how to update. So Flash would still be a solution there.

    I think youll see a shift where first 95% was a flash tour and 5% ipad, its gonna turn around or even out. But still both are needed, which means you need to program for both (learn actionscript 3 and javascript) or make 100% use of krpano xml code which works in both.

  • Also: yay for fragmentation!
    Just when MS finally decided to embrace standards and IE6 (and 7,8) are becoming just a bad memory, and the dream of a uniform web platform starting to really materialize, Apple yanks it away.

    There's nothing better for innovation than having to develop and support multiple platforms.

    As to Flash not being dead, sure, it's being buried alive, and it'll take some time for it to actually die. How many devs are going to invest in an abandoned platform? Sure Flash is essential for lots of advanced multimedia stuff but who can afford ignore the iDevices and now all mobile/tablet market?

    Never mind that the general public has very skewed view of what Flash actually is. Videos and annoying ads, which never were the point of Flash.

    Videos will and should transition to HTML5 and so will ads. Expect them to get more annoying and harder to block.

  • I dont like fragmentation...

    Im still developing for IE 6, 7, 8, opera, mozilla, chrome, safari, on all kinds of windows, mac, ios, android devices, all with their own interpretation of browser code. Atm for a tour you 'have' to have 3 different xml (if device = android/tablet/ios/desktop), 3 different panoramas (in different sizes cause of memory restrictions), with different plugins (videoplayer.swf / videoplayer.js) with different interfaces (resolution restrictions) etc. This is a choice if you want to support the 2-5% of non flash users, but if it splits up to 50-50 its gonna be hard... At a certain point im sure there would only be a couple of % that use flash. But in that transistion period you have to develop for both since flash/html5 users are in too large numbers.

  • Hi,

    personally I think all these discussions about Flash vs. HTML5 or if Flash is dead and so are a bit overrated and more political than really based on facts or details.

    I also don't think that Flash (especially on Desktop) will be away in short- or mid-term, maybe in a long term period, but that's not that important now.

    Even when Adobe has stopped developing the Mobile Flashplayer for Android, it will be still available for mid/long time, especially as long as the Android browsers doesn't offer any other ways for displaying 3D stuff (currently there is no working/usable HTML5 CSS-3D-Transforms or WebGL support on Android, this might eventually change with Android 4.0 but I don't know yet).

    On the other side - on Desktop the Flashplayer 11 will provide a nice performance increase with the new 'Stage3D' GPU rendering - the next krpano version 1.0.9 will support that.

    I by-myself will still work on to make krpano supporting all current available technologies (Flash10, Flash11/Stage3D, CSS 3D, WebGL) to get the best performing pano experience everywhere. With the krpano XML you already have an interface to both worlds. I have written that also here: https://krpano.com/iphone/#future

    Best regards,
    Klaus

  • I´m with Klaus on this topic. This whole "Flash is dead and HTML5 is the future"-talk is going on for years now and is in my opinion far overrated. Maybe all devices and browsers uses HTML5 some day, but until now Flash is such a strong brand on the market that it´s almost unimaginable that it will disappear during the next years. And who can tell what we´ll be using in 5 or 10 years?! Maybe none of both *wink*

    Best regards
    Nupsi

  • I agree, it wouldnt dissapear overnight. Im just saying, that if your company is purely based on developing flash tours, you should start looking at html5. Flash isnt 100% The way Anymore. Ive Worked at à company that only makes flash tours through à cms. They are already having troubles with the few iPad requests they get. I Reckon there are otters. And the html5 requests are only growing.

  • Hi,
    The difference of quality between Flash11 and HTML5 is huge. Only the blind man will not see it.
    Mobile version of Flash is dead? There aren't problems. I think, mobile devices will support standard version of Flash. LOL

    ....
    On the other side - on Desktop the Flashplayer 11 will provide a nice performance increase with the new 'Stage3D' GPU rendering - the next krpano version 1.0.9 will support that.
    ....
    Best regards,
    Klaus

    Klaus, when KRpano 1.0.9 will be available?

  • Hi,
    The difference of quality between Flash11 and HTML5 is huge. Only the blind man will not see it.
    Mobile version of Flash is dead? There aren't problems. I think, mobile devices will support standard version of Flash. LOL

    Klaus, when KRpano 1.0.9 will be available?

    Adobe discontinues mobile development, so in that part it's dying
    http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/…lash-focus.html

    It now focusses on AIR development as app, not flash in a browser.

    Adobe still continues to support flash on desktop browsers, but will alsoo be focussing more on AIR development:
    http://blogs.adobe.com/flashplatform/…-and-metro.html

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