For a long time the writing has been on the wall for Flash – the technology that brought excitement and video to the web but slowly but surely support for flash has been dropped.
First the iphone and ipad - Apple very publically refused to allow Flash on its platforms stating security and performance issues.
By far the biggest blow comes from the new Windows 8, yet to be launched but available as a beta version which features Internet Explorer 10. IE10 will not support Flash or any other plugin so that leaves Flash out in the cold.
The final demise comes from Adobe themselves who announced they will no longer be developing mobile Flash Player.
So where does that leave the users?
Pretty much everything that Flash did can be achieved with the open standards HTML 5 and it seems that most developers will move to HTML 5 over the next few years. The downside is HTML 5 only works with modern browsers. If you are not using the latest browser you are not going to get all the benefits of HTML 5.
Websites like BBCiplayer and You Tube both use Flash as a way of delivering video content although You Tube now has the option to switch to non-Flash based video using the HTML 5 <VIDEO> TAG.
Over time users will update their browsers and developers will adopt the new technology.
Our advice to anyone with a website is to review their website and work with their developers to replace any flash elements as some as possible to maximise their audience and to upgrade their browsers to the latest versions so they can enjoy the full benefits of the web.
It is good practice to keep your browser up to date and to check your current website to ensure it still works with newer browsers.
To have more information regarding this article, please contact Kudos Web Design Manchester Team!