I remember Macromedia Flash 5 with ActionScripting 1.0. WOW!  This is the future of the Internet.  This will really open up the possibilities to developers.  Or so I thought.

Ten years later we still have this proprietary, resource hogging, buggy standard we call Adobe Flash.  I don’t blame Adobe in anyway; they do the best they can.  I blame ourselves, the developers.  We have all the power and time to create an open standard, but we sit by and watch DHTML fall and HTML5 flounder.

Since we drag our feet, developers have no choice but to continue developing in Flash.  I grant you, there are some great things being done in Flash:

1. Video containers
2. Photo galleries and slideshows
3. Games

But the fact simple fact that any semblance of Flash nails my Core2 Duo to the roof tells us all we need to know about this standard.  There is something really wrong with it.

The Apple iPad, frustrating as it may be, rightly omits Flash from Mobile Safari.  Besides being a resource hog, Flash is buggy beyond belief in almost all flavors (different browsers and different operating systems).  Battery concerns aside, I support Apple’s philosophical stand in forcing change at the annoyance of their own customers.

I said before, the Apple iPad is not about flexibility or power.  It’s simply a device that is supposed to provide one, easy way to get a task done.  Maybe you don’t agree it’s the best way, but if you’re about to adapt and evolve, then you need a more flexible platform than the iPad.  This device is not for you.

The Apple iPad is a closed system that is supposed to provide it’s users the best user experience to the tasks they commonly need to accomplish.  By definition opening up the system introduces confusion, complication, and contradiction.  Flash introduces all three of these unwelcome concepts.

Give me HTML5 (or some widely accepted open standard), and Apple will give you rich content in Safari.

Posted via web from jasonishibashi’s posterous