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The big news about the launch of Android Chrome was tarnished a little in the eyes of some by the fact that it doesn’t arrive with Flash Player support of any kind. And it won’t be getting any, either, according to Adobe.
Adobe published a blog post on the matter shortly after Chrome’s big reveal, saying: “Today Google introduced Chrome for Android Beta. As we announced last November, Adobe is no longer developing Flash Player for mobile browsers, and thus Chrome for Android Beta does not support Flash content.”
Adobe helpfully points out that “Flash Player continues to be supported within the current Android browser,” so if you have a burning desire to start seeing animated adverts all over your phone’s display for old time’s sake, you’ll have to fire up the old webkit window. [Adobe]
Flash is useful and some sites still use it heavily, however it’s existence is holding up the adoption of HTML 5, so another browser (and such a major one) stopping using it will help. In the meantime, we at least have a choice which is more than you can say for iOS.
Any self-respecting web developer would not develop a new site in Flash and would limit its usage as much as possible. HTML5/CSS3/Javascript can now acheive most of what flash can (except perhaps more advanced games etc). It’s really down to the developers to keep up with new technologies and roll them out in their projects. Browsers may be one way to speed this up.
Flash’s big continuing draw, unfortunately, is that it can be loaded up with DRM. This means that web streaming services etc use it over open, native technologies such as Javascript or HTML5 because content providers make them.
There’s been a bit of a move towards Silverlight recently because it provides stronger DRM measures (ie: movie studios are forcing people like Netflix and LoveFilm to stream via Silverlight or lose the content) – but it’s available to even LESS devices as there’s no Linux or mobile support at all.
Ultimately, there’s a place and a time for web plugins, and they’re on beefy, proper computers to get around having to install big, clunky native applications for a simple service. For mobile devices, a native application is usually best and there really aren’t many cases where Flash in the Android browser is a better option than a natively compiled application.
Ultimately, Flash on mobile died for a reason, so there’s not much value in complaining about it months after the fact because the world is moving on without it.
Yup native apps are the best option but unfortunately broadcasters are slow as you like to push them out for example Android has iPlayer which is crippled by no offline caching or 3G streaming (my Nokia 5800 could do this so why my dual core Android isn’t able to I have no idea) and that’s it… no ITV player, no 4oD, no Sky player, no Demand 5. If you want to watch something on one of those services it’s web browser and that wont work for sky and is crap for 4od
Any SDK licencee can compile flash for whatever platform they wish.
Sony compiled Flash for PS3, and I would imgine Google will take over porting flash for Chrome. The porting will be mostly trivial anyway, just API changes to suit the new browser.
This is true, as RIM is also doing this with the Playbook, although I doubt that Google will do this, as they are happy promoting their technologies over HTML5 (WebM etc..).
You developers are always colouring the argument as you look forwards. Us users, however, often enjoy older sites rely on flash. This “Kill Flash” movement, which seems to be because you developers are too lazy as Flash is difficult, and you love Steve Jobs, is actually hurting us users. I am really disappointed in Adobe. Flash is out there, it has become a public good. They made money from it. I think they have a responsibility to support it until pages VIEWED (not created) in Flash become a rarity.
I agree completely, even as a dev.
I would definately argue against using Flash but the sad fact is, you can’t stop supporting what people are still using. Also, HTML5 still does NOT DO EVERYTHING, and people need Flash to support older browsers.