It seems Adobe is beginning to accept the slow demise of Flash with the release of a brand new tool for creating HTML5 animations and webpages. The first beta of ‘Edge’ is available to download now from Adobe’s Lab website, but is a little limited in its current form.
Right now, Edge is a little basic, with limited support for animations only and just a single page layout. However, Adobe expects the software to become much bigger:
Adobe® Edge is a new web motion and interaction design tool that allows designers to bring animated content to websites, using web standards like HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS3.
Edge will be updated regularly to add new functionality, stay ahead of evolving web standards, and incorporate user feedback to provide the best functionality and experience possible. This is an early look at Edge with more capabilities to come.
The launch of this software is a pretty significant move by Adobe, which continues to defend Flash and dismiss claims that it may be dying out. Even with the launch of Edge, Adobe’s creative solutions architect, John Cole, insists that both HTML5 and Flash will “co-exist in the long-term.”
As Edge becomes bigger and better, I’m sure the demise of Flash will become more rapid as developers adopt HTML5.
[via MacStories]
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
17 responses to “Is Adobe Beginning to Accept the Demise of Flash With New HTML5 Tool?”
Coexist? Why?
What need is there for Flash when we have HTML5?
While not necessarily recognizing “the demise of Flash”, Adobe is certainly accepting the importance of HTML5 and addressing the market.
Demise of Flash? Not even close…
Flash could be replaced by HTML5 about as much as it can be
replaced by HTML now. Every time I read analysis like this I’m reminded
of how little people really know about Flash and why HTML5 couldn’t
possibly replace it. Here are just a few reasons why this article
doesn’t really know what it’s talking about:1. Standardization.
The old Java “write once, run anywhere” concept is much more applicable
to Flash which runs on just about all browsers, mobiles (including iOS),
and desktops (through AIR). Coming from a single vendor ensures that
the Flash/AIR player run exactly the same way regardless of platform (if
you believe this concept works for Apple then you must necessarily
believe it works for Adobe, and that pudding has been proven). HTML5 has
*already* fractured across even just the few browsers that support it
now. IE is different from Chrome is different from Safari is different
from Firefox. A great example is one of the latest Google doodles (the
3D hanging mobile art one) — only supported on Chrome. This will only
get worse with time.2. Sockets — all binary sockets are
supported, instantly opening Flash up to be used in a wide variety of
applications. HTML5 still only supports AJAX through JavaScript (which
is also fractious).3. Low level binary support. This includes
the ability to read/write audio, video, and image data across the whole
stage (or canvas / display area) of the Flash application.4.
Low-level 3D support through AGAL, a shader language similar to DirectX
or OpenGL. WebGL is already dead in the water, once again because of
it’s fractious support across browsers.5. Continued development.
HTML5 has been in the pipeline for ages simply because it’s a community
standard (which makes its piecemeal adoption even more laughable). By
the time it *finally* got around to some level of public support, Flash
had progressed by at least 3 versions. This pace of advancement will
continue into the foreseeable future, and HTML5 will always be playing
catch up.Basically, as a “standard”, HTML5 has failed miserably
on just about every aspect. It has certainly made strides forward and is
a viable option for many things that previously used Flash, mostly
basic/annoying things like ads or simple animations. Even I’ve promoted
HTML as an option when basic functionality was required and could be
guaranteed to work well across all browsers (very very rare for anything
complex). Beyond this, however, what can be done with HTML/JavaScript
now won’t be much different from what HTML5/JavaScript can do tomorrow,
and to suggest that Flash could replace it, or that Adobe would undercut
one of its heavily invested flagship technologies (the Flash Platform
has many other components than just the Flash player), is a ludicrous
statement.I’ve noticed a number of technology magazines repeatedly using the hockneyed “Flash killer” headline and when I read stuff like that, it calls into question whether or not they know the first thing about *anything* they write about.Thankfully, this site makes it more of a question, but still somehow decided to throw Flash into the mix as being the competition even though Adobe has NEVER said that it is, in any way, shape, or form.
if you’re imagination is tiny and shriveled and you can only think of very basic, simple projects like ads or animations or simple page widgets then yes, you won’t need Flash. If you have more than half a modern human brain, you’ll want to do more, and Flash is indispensable.
There is *no* way that HTML5/JavaScript will replace Flash (see my reasons above), but there are situations where Flash isn’t required. Coexistence is not a question.
When Flash was what it was intended to be – a simple animation program – before it became the bloated resource hogging multimedia programming tool – nobody had an issue with it. Once Adobe decided that the world needed another object oriented language and turned Action Script from a simple means to navigate through the timeline and into a proprietary bastard child of Java and C, then the whole reason to use Flash on anything but a mile wide band of pipe became moot.
Face it – Apple and HTML5 aren’t killing Flash, Adobe has been doing it ever since they bought MacroMedia by twisting it away from the core reason the program existed.
Now programs like Hype or Edge promise to bring back the simple functionality of timeline animation via basic Java and a timeline interface and people are beginning to see the writing on the wall for Flash.
You think that HTML5 is dead as a standard when it hasn’t even been published, but it’s much better than Adobe having ActionScript/Flex/Air and trying to keep them sorted out while the rest of the world moves on with Ajax and Java.
I have a lot of my career wrapped up in Flash, but if I can’t have work seen on the millions of mobile devices Apple is selling every month, then Flash is of little use to me.
Check out this awesome apple blog!
http://applefanboynews.com/
You can use Hype 1.0.3 now and it not in beta… bonus: guys from apple made it. I am looking forward to comparing the GUI of both, but Hype will actually work with older versions of IE, etc. — from what I understand, the beta of Edge doesn’t deal with that yet.
uhh… yes you can in case you didn’t know. Adobe Flash and Flex remind you have a one time develop one time publish option that allows you to create for almost every mobile platform available. Where have you been?
You have no idea what your talking about… Flash and specifically Flex AS3 are advanced OOP supported and are utilizing advanced MVC frameworks such as Caringorme, Parsley, Mate, etc; If your so called alternative HTML5 is so great why are 85% of the top 100 websites on the web using FLASH? You want a battle bring on HTML5… I will put up my dev skills against any HTML dev out there.