(Sorry this image is still a work in progress I will update it later.)

The Birth of the Flash We Know

Flash was an animation software that Adobe acquired from Macromedia back in the first release of Adobe Creative Suite. Flash has not only been the leading web animation platform for years but also a multimedia platform that brought consistent standards to audio and video multimedia     to the web as well as opening up  game development  to younger audience.

Flash went on to become to the foundation of  Youtube prior to HTML5, the largest video sharing site in the world. Despite all this  Apple has pointedly tried to kill Flash at every turn since releasing iOS. In truth the iTunes App Store and iOS game development may never have come to be if it wasn’t for Flash bringing the concept of web and mobile game development to the forefront and making it accessible and affordable.

Who Doesn’t Believe Flash is Dead

If the cult of Mac believes Flash is Dead, that’s all well and good they aren’t truly important (no offense). In the grand scheme of things the people who matter haven’t accepted Steve Jobs memo as absolute, the Entertainment and Film Industry. Nearly every major motion picture company including Sony and Universal still use Flash on their websites. They still use them on the websites of the movies they produce, and build flash games and content for their entertainment properties.

The Film and Entertainment companies opinion on the usefulness and viability of Flash to accomplish their business and marketing needs, suggest that Apple is wrong in  not giving their customers a choice in being able to consume the Flash content their favorite shows and movies have available. The reasoning given by Steve Jobs in his “Thoughts  on Flash”, is rhetoric that is easily refuted and represents (in my opinion) little more than a rationalization by Apple to further their dominance in the mobile industry. Enabling and interactive platform they can’t profit from in their App Store is not on their agenda even if it does give consumers a choice what they consume and how. A choice outside the Apple Ecosystem is not one they apparently will support.

Apple cites the large adoption of HTML5 by sites like Youtube and Google and their migration from Flash, but neglects to mention that the iPad and the overwhelming success of the iPhone (see How the iPad Changed Design) forced their hand since they could not afford to allows that many users to just see a large lego on their screens…

As far as mobile goes, Flash is officially dead (for now) but a resurrection opportunity may exist as Apple has began something resembling a divorce from Google, Adobe may decide to go with Google and visit Apple every other weekend, time will tell.  But Flash is still alive and well in the Desktop world and will continue to be as HTML5 is no substitute for the level of animation that Flash brings to the table and is still not capable of all Flash has accomplished as a media delivery platform.

Joke: “Flash survived Lex Luthor, Flash will survive Apple.”

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Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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