17 September, 2011
By Greg Morgan
Adobe Flash’s world has got a little bit smaller, with Microsoft announcing it will not be included on the upcoming Metro version of Windows 8. Once again, one of the most popular plug-ins of all time is being swept aside in favour of HTML5.
However, despite this news, Adobe are not admitting defeat. “We are excited about the innovation and opportunities that are available to our customers and Adobe as the Web and platforms evolve across devices, including Windows 8 and Metro,” Adobe’s Danny Winokur, vice president and general manager for platform, told TechNewsWorld.
“We expect Windows desktop to continue to be extremely popular for years to come and that it will support Flash just fine, including rich Web-based games and premium videos that require Flash,” Winokur said, adding “In addition, we expect Flash-based apps will come to Metro via Adobe AIR, much the way they are on Android, iOS and BlackBerry Tablet OS today.”
However, no matter how brave these words are, things are looking decidedly bad for Flash as a de-facto standard. As the world puts more and more focus on mobile technology, Flash has been found to be too demanding on both processor power and batteries. Apple have been saying this for years now, and it looks like Microsoft are catching up.
There are also problems with Flash in terms of web standards, as it violates many of the principles of the open Web. “Standards-based Web developers have for years been telling commercial sites using Flash that they were breaking the Internet,” the Yankee Group’s Howe said, adding “Flash violates many of the fundamental principles of today’s open Web, including searchability, structuring of content, and the ability to bookmark where you are.”
