Just yesterday, we published an article on how two very different companies were both tackling the same problem in very different ways. The companies were Google and Vdopia, the problem is that Apple iOS doesn’t support Flash, and both of their solutions amounted to the same thing: stop using Flash. Today, yet another company has released a solution that side-steps Adobe.
What’s the story?
From a certain perspective, what we’ve got here is a battle between proprietary and open technologies. Flash has been a big dog for a long time, but not everyone is happy using it because it is owned by Adobe. Adobe went some way towards fixing bugs and performance problems with Flash 10.1 last year, but it by no means ended the war. Apple simply refuses to support Flash, and is encouraging everyone to use open HTML 5 technologies instead. And Apple isn’t alone – while Opera supports Flash, it would rather everyone use HTML 5 instead. And seeing as Opera is still the biggest mobile browser around, what it thinks is important in this instance.
And it seems that others agree. Google and Vdopia (a mobile video advertiser) both released solutions to this problem yesterday that effectively amounted to “use HTML 5 instead of Flash”
What happened today?
appMobi is a cloud-hosted platform that provides developers with the tools they need to make applications using HTML 5, CSS and JavaScript – the three technologies that are often referred to under the umbrella term of “HTML 5”. Today, appMobi announced a new tool for their platform – appFlash. Its creator claims that appFlash can transform Adobe Flash creatives into HTML 5 files – which will run like native apps on an iOS device. Interestingly, this service actually uses the Google service which we reported on yesterday. The only real problem with Google’s translator (called SWIFFY), is that it’s a raw tool. There are no real services around it – but appMobi can plug the output from that tool into its existing platform. Developers can view, test and touch up the converted app using the appMobi XDK software.
Sam Abadir, appMobi CTO says “we saw what GoogleLabs created with SWIFFY and thought it would be an interesting experiment to hook it up to our cloud-based app build services, providing a very streamlined way to get Flash assets onto the iOS platform. In our initial testing, we found some counter-intuitive quirks, for example SWIFFY’s HTML5 output does not work on Android devices. So for now, we’re not offering Android builds on this experiment, but as soon as SWIFFY is ready for Android, we’ll make it available.”
appFlash is available free on the appMobi web site at http://www.appmobi.com/appFlash
What we think?
Ok, so one of the things that keeps coming up is that people already know how to use Flash. They like it, it’s easy. It’s a lot easier than learning how to code for iOS. So there’s an attitude out there that making Flash translation services will just mean that people continue coding in Flash, and then translate it into whatever system they’re interested in running their creative/application on.
I don’t really believe that.
All three of the services launched in the last day were geared towards converting Flash into HTML 5. How long will people continue going through a middle man? If Flash isn’t actually necessary, how long will it stay afloat. The big problem with HTML 5 is that it isn’t completely ready yet – there are still problems with it as a platform. Even appMobi admits that, as it had to release a product recently to try and fix the horrible rendering speed issues HTML 5 has – and the appFlash system only works for iOS at the moment. Android devs will just have to wait.
But these are all teething problems. Even without being truly ready yet, HTML5 is still attracting a huge amount of support and developers. For me, it’s like a tide that’s just coming in. It’s implacable, but we’re not submerged yet. Even so, our ankles are wet now and I think people are taking a look around at what the future of mobile development is really going to be.
While reading your article i have iPhone app in front of me, developing Flash (Flex, AS3) application and its working like a charm.
No point of this bombastic articles when no one is gonna lose or win, people will use technology that exists no matter of its name, and Flash platform has so many options that no other technology has and that`s why customers and developers will continue choosing this as a developer platform.
Adobe’s mobile development strategy is really about building cross platform applications that run on AIR (for iOS, Blackberry and Android currently). This is very different than just converting Flash animations into HTML5. Adobe has definitely lost the war with regard to building mobile websites in Flash (although I’ve seen some interesting examples).
Hi, you might want to check a bit more into what Swiffy can actually do.
(The real constraint is the runtime engines. With SWF you’re running in an engine tuned to the format. Converting to HTML means finding a tradeoff between what you want to do and what the various HTML or “HTML5″ renderers can support, w hich usually means cutting off part of the audience (Firefox, eg).)
jd/adobe
There is a slew of problems with Flash when it comes to mobile. Apart from bugs, Flash also seems to be lagging behind in performance.
Given the power of today’s smartphones and how smooth and seamless Uis are nowadays, it simply is inexcusable for Flash to have such a hit on performance and battery life.
What kind of “hit” are you actually seeing, on which device? Others find that battery drain is roughty comparable to any other method of display… or a little more efficient.
For performance, others see Flash as being more powerful, once you control for hardware acceleration of video:
http://www.craftymind.com/guimark3/
(And why the assertions under an anonymous name? There would be more credibility when not acting like a fifty-center would.)
jd/adobe
Funny, isn’t it? That Adobe not once has said that Flash was the “end all solution” to browsing on the web, but folks seem to portray them as saying as such. They never stopped building other solutions, and investing in HTML5 technologies.
If you look at some of the items that they have integrated into CS5 Suite (such as more HTML5 integration), and also conversion of flash into HTML5 (see Wallaby), you’ll see that despite what some might lead you to believe – Adobe is about giving developers options, not tying their hands.
Is it just me or have we ignored that Flash CS5.5 publishes to iphone, android and blackberry anyway? I’m currently using Flash to develop primarily for iphone, and I don’t see the benefit of using SWIFFY or appMobi’s service.