There’s been a lot of noise in online media this year concerning the future of Flash, much of it instigated by the promise of HTML5 as well as Apple’s apparent lack of interest in supporting it on their mobile devices. Thanks in part to Apple, and to other mobile / web-enabled devices currently shipping without Flash Player plugins, Adobe’s historic claim of Flash being “ubiquitous” is starting to erode.
As a result, plenty of tech writers and bloggers have been claiming that “Flash is dead” and there’s now a holy war for the future of the web between HTML, Flash, Adobe and Apple (and you must pick a side). Neither assertion is true.
Let’s get a couple of important points out of the way. First, the Flash Player isn’t going anywhere. It is (currently, and will continue to be) installed on well over 90% of desktop computers, and (with the imminent release of Flash Player 10.1) will soon be available on a huge number of mobile devices, netbooks and tablets. Adobe is not only going to great effort to make the plugin better, but also working with many third party companies to ensure their users have a mobile web browsing experience that fully replicates the desktop.
Second, Flash and HTML should be viewed as complimentary technologies, not competing. The SlideShowPro player utilizes Flash because it allows us to provide a consistent, dynamic photo and video player with loads of point-and-click effects and customizations that can be easily customized, embedded and viewed on any web site using any browser. That was the goal when SlideShowPro started, and continues to be today. Flash was, and still is, the best tool for that type of application.
That said, and this may come as a surprise, but we’re very excited over the prospect of alternatives to Flash and the ever increasing power of what’s natively possible in the web browser (without plugins). Why? Because we’re passionate about web design and development, in all forms, with a particular interest in providing photographers and designers the means to create, publish and share engaging online content. The way people access the web may change, but our goal does not.
Our product lineup of the SlideShowPro player, SlidePress, ThumbGrid, and the content management system SlideShowPro Director, have provided users with a powerful publishing toolkit. They have contributed to some amazing online work, including everything from full blown web sites to simple photo galleries. Going forward, we want you to know that we intend to grow our business and expand our product lineup to provide alternate publishing solutions that aren’t reliant on Adobe, Flash, or any third party / proprietary technology for that matter. We’ve actually been quietly working towards that goal for a while now, and should soon have more tangible information to share with you.
As for our current product lineup, don’t fret. Development of our Flash-based offerings will fervently continue (for example, a new 2.0 version of ThumbGrid is coming out in the next few weeks), and you can expect to see additional Flash-based tools from us down the road.
See you in the near future.
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