To Flash or not to Flash

There’s a war going on, and as amusing as it is for some, the decisions made these weeks by Adobe and Apple will influence in a major way not only the nascent mobile apps market, but also the PC-based web apps market as well.

There’s a growing debate among developers and designers about Flash. The Internet itself seems a bit schizoid in this respect. On one hand, Flash is being used extensively to provide video, animation and rich media content and advertising to websites, making them appealing and truly interactive. On the other hand, Flash is rather difficult to index by the main search engine (Google, or by any other search engine), and is not compatible with the majority of mobile devices, forcing publishers sometimes to downgrade their websites in order to remain visible not only for traffic coming from search engines, but also for traffic coming from mobile devices. Not to speak about Flash abuse, so common in immature markets.

On one hand we have amazing websites where Flash is used to create a completely immersive experience for the user and innovative navigation techniques, on the other hand we have crashing web browsers, overcharging processors and less battery life for netbooks, laptops and other mobile devices.

Some hail html5 as the universal panacea that will solve all problems, but they have to keep in mind that it comes with its own share of problems, one of which is cross-platform compatibility. Some say that Adobe should rather invest more efforts into revamping Flash into a less resource-heavy platform, while keeping its main benefits. Finally, some say that it’s not about the platform, it’s about the developers.
WRONG. It’s all about the client. Because the war between Apple and Adobe is not waged with the consumers in mind, but with a completely different approach in mind: some want to protect and develop an exquisite technological platform with 100% control, and the others want to remain the main providers of a cross-platform multimedia tool for everybody to use, without being denied access by anyone, no matter if their solution doesn’t work well on the said platform.

Interactive agencies should rather always keep in mind their client’s needs. Does the client’s website really need Flash? Will it impede traffic coming from the ever-growing mobile devices, or is this a minor matter? Is it the time to use developing languages and tools that you don’t master as well, putting much more effort in developing interactive and immersive websites that are to be seen well in any browser, than you were accustomed to do with Flash? Is this ‘war’ rather a strong opportunity to develop specialized teams and resources in order to be able to touch both markets with the best approach?
Questions, questions. The way each agency will respond to these questions will have a direct influence not only in the market, but also in the agencies’ future.

But remember:  customer real needs are those that dictate what type of language, tools and platforms you chose to use. Anything else is nothing than a war of words from two companies keen to keep and consolidate their markets. Don’t be caught in the middle, in a fight that is not yours. It’s always about the client. At least, that’s how we do it.