Flash: Could This Be the Beginning of the End?

Adobe’s Flash has taken a lot of heat since its inception. Critics have demonized it, and some of its strongest allies made matters worse, by generating a steady stream of slow moving, self-serving, animated splash pages, that included some of the most annoying music loops and sound effects possible.

Remember the “skip intro” button, and its sibling, the “sound on/sound off” toggle we used to see on so many websites?

Well now that Apple has no intention of supporting Flash on its iPhone, nor on its recently introduced iPad, you won’t have to worry about Flash any more— at least not if you’re browsing the web on one of these devices.

Shopping for a new BMW or for Nike apparel? Reading the online version of the New York Times on a lazy Sunday morning? Want to keep the kids occupied playing games on Nick.com this evening? Too bad— on an iPad, you’ll probably see a broken icon (as Steve Jobs famously demonstrated during his iPad introduction), or you’ll be redirected to a version of the site without Flash.

Whether you’re opposed to Flash or not, some of the most creative and technically sophisticated websites you’ll ever see, could not have been created without it. Flash has become so prevalent, it is practically transparent— the average user has no idea whether a website is using it or not.

So why does Apple believe that life without Flash is actually going to create a better user experience? Is the performance of Flash on the iPhone or iPad really that dreadful? What does Flash do to the iPhone and iPad that the engineers at Apple and Adobe cannot resolve? Apparently, Adobe and Google’s engineers have found a way to make it work (e.g., Google’s Android platform).

If this is the beginning of the end for Flash, it won’t be because of Apple’s arrogance. Yes, I can do without Flash on my iPhone if I must. No, I can’t do without Flash on my MacBook Pro, and I can’t do without Flash on an iPad— at least not yet. So I guess I won’t be standing in line to buy one.

As a web designer, I’m always interested in emerging technologies— particularly those that will allow us to deliver a better user experience. The problem is, emerging technologies are just that— emerging. And HTML5, which Steve Jobs claims will render Flash obsolete (which is doubtful), is far from being fully supported in major web browsers— most notably, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Yes, if Flash doesn’t evolve (i.e., continue to allow us to do things that can’t be done with other technologies), it certainly will die. But not any time soon.

Tommy Oddo is a web designer and digital artist who lives in Austin, Texas. Entrepreneurs, marketers, and in-house teams hire him to make their websites and digital products more engaging and easier to use. Follow him on: Linkedin, Quora, Twitter, and Facebook. Subscribe to future articles via RSS and/or Email.