Tuesday, May 24, 2011

HTML5 VS Flash

HTML5 VS Flash, what is your choice?
HTML5's been pitted against Flash as the savior of web video since the release of the iPad, on which you can't play any Flash contents. There are those that suggest that HTML5 will one day supplant/replace Adobe Flash. On that day, you could finally enjoy web video on your iPad (and more mobile devices). I am only a website owner, rather than a programmer. What can I do in this revolution (is it) ? HTML5 is rapidly growing as a new standard of online video technology, and we need to be prepared in advance to accommodate it. It is still early to say that HTML5 will replace Flash totally,Html5 doesn’t provide all the features and functionality that Flash does today, so we’ll have to consider our choices wisely.

HTML5 VS Flash
Before comparing HTML5 to Flash, we need to know what exactly they are, right?
Flash: It's a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages by Adobe (formerly Macromedia Flash). As far as you know, Flash is frequently used for advertisements and games. More recently, it has been positioned as a tool for "Rich Internet Application (RIA) ". Flash is the most widely used content delivery methodology up to date. By the way, The Microsoft counterpart of Flash is SILVERLIGHT.

HTML5: It's the next awaited version of HyperText Markup Language (HTML) which is expected to bring about a radical change in the client side web coding. However, when people refer to HTML5, they usually mean the combination of HTML as a markup language, CSS which specifies how it is rendered, and the javascript code which manipulates the HTML and CSS dynamically.

HTML5 not only has the standard text elements, but also elements which embeds the video and to element to embed the audio, which was brought to web browser by Canvas - a more relevant method compared to Flash. Below is the general Flash to HTML5 comparison.

Why choose Flash
Good to great web presentation
Excellent Flash player penetration
Browser independent
AS3 is a strong typed language

Why choose HTML5
Doesn't require a plug-in
The best bet for animated content on mobile devices
Fast bitmap rendering
Fast JavaScript render speed
Great open source initiatives trying to push Canvas further

HTML5 Will Beat Flash, But Not Now.
So, there are both advantages and disadvantages of HTML5 and Flash. But in my opinion, HTML5 improves interoperability and reduces development costs by making precise rules on how to handle all HTML elements, and how to recover from errors. It has more opportunities to win the war. HTML5 will replace Flash and Silverlight eventually, maybe 5 years, maybe 10 years. Do note that both Adobe and Microsoft are giants, you don't know what they will do to affect the result. Only one thing is sure: HTML5 and Flash will go together for a long time to come.Flash is offering value to a lot of people and will not disappear overnight.

Now stay far away from the debate of replacement of HTML5 to Flash. You need to move your business on. But the situation is now or will be like this: Many people use the web browsers that don't support HTML5 like Internet Explorer 6,7,8, while others have upgraded their browsers to which well support HTML5. How would you do?

The mix solution like HTML5 video player seems to be unavoidable. And keep your eyes on HTML5 is also necessary.

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