To Apple’s Steve Jobs, Flash is a thing of the past that has seen its best days, while HTML 5 has come to save the day. To Adobe, HTML 5 is a technology that is complementary to Flash, and both will used to create the web of the future.
Jobs angered some developers earlier this month with his statement that “Flash looks like a technology that has had its day.” He believes that Adobe’s Flash is ridden with bugs, and is a battery and system resource hog. The Flash Player software currently powers many of the web’s videos, advertisements and interactive graphics, and is installed on 98% of personal computers worldwide. It delivers 70% of games and 75% of videos on the web, according to Adobe.
Adobe believes that its new Flash Player 10.1 will prove to the market that it is, and will remain relevant to smartphone and tablet PC users. It was designed to enable video to run more smoothly on mobile devices, and supports iPhone-like touchscreen gestures. Additionally, the company says that this version is streamlined to preserve battery life.