Since the iPad was announced the media has been up in arms about the still lack of support for Flash player. But does it really need it? If i’m  honest I don’t think i have ever really come into a situation that has required me to have Flash support whilst using my iPod touch or iPhone, theres been one or two occasions where a website still uses Flash for the entire site but then I just managed to find the information I required somewhere else or through an app.

I don’t completely dislike Flash, far from it! I grew up on it. Before discovering Flash (at this point in time Flash 5, Still then by Macromedia) I was stuck in the humdrum of basic computer usage, word processing, powerpoint and web browsing, basically the bare minimum ICT had to teach me. I remember when it started to kick off, everyone would be in the suites showing off what they had created, basically some shitty animations, we hadn’t actually worked out that it was created to produce dynamic websites. I probably owe it to Flash that I am interested in technology and design nowadays. It set me off on a path towards where I am today, from Flash I discovered Dreamweaver and then fireworks. I’ve had a copy of Flash ever since.

Although I hold it in high esteem in my past, I believe thats where Flash mostly belongs. Sites that are created entirely in Flash with no HTML equivalent, alienate a huge chunk of the world. In times where information needs to be accessed quickly and efficiently using Flash just takes up valuable time and in the end just makes it a lot harder to find what you want. Not only that it has lost a huge chunk of what it was used for in the mainstream nowadays, I browse the web alot. Probably spend more hours on the internet than i do sleeping, eating, and talking combined. Yet 75% of the time Flash is used for some shitty advert that probably could have been achieved with an animated gif (don’t get me started on them!) Browsing with Chrome at the moment I lack the ability to block Flash like I used to with a simple extension to safari, I don’t want to see Flash adverts!

it’s a well known fact that Flash player is a cpu hog and takes up too much memory. This is ok for simple short youtube videos but for everything else its just a waste in my opinion. I won’t go into detail about HTML5 and its benefits and why I believe it will make the majority of Flash uses defunct. But its not going to be long before we see some serious changes in the webspace, some incredible animation effects can already be achieved with css and javascript, the possibility’s are endless but Flash’s lifespan isn’t!

(Credits go to Teehan + Lax for the iPad psd template)