Since ’95 I’ve seen popularity of online platforms, code, frameworks, languages, etc – rise and fall, and learned not to fall in love with any of them.

We use whatever we need to get the job done right. Hopefully in the easiest method which equals less time to build, and a faster payment.

I use Flash a lot both PC and Mobile for specific projects, and love all of Adobe’s products! They’re simple to learn/use, and cut project time to build tremendously.

In the spirit of this article though, there’s also not one project we do that doesn’t include Javascript. We use numerous flavors of JS usually based on the specific project needs but – Jquery is obviously top choice based on the plugins and community supporting it.

Do I think Jquery will replace Flash?
Nope, just like I don’t think Apple will replace Microsoft or Linux, and vice-versa(s).

Is Jquery killing Flash?
No, but Jquery might be denting sales a bit. Jquery has some excellent plugins that become a nice replacement option for Flash on some specific feature aspects of Website Dev & Design for projects.

Both Flash and Jquery are excellent tools for Dev, period. It’s difficult to compare both in the same category though. They’re similar in some areas, but very different in core when you truly compare what they offer overall right now. Mostly this is IDE/GUI advantages for Flash.

I do believe Javascript has made an extremely strong comeback since the old days when browsers sucked and gave JS a bad rap. I can also see that with further popularity, development growth, and the open source movement, that JS could seriously contend with Flash – and similars in graphics, animation, video, etc.

One interesting theory on how this WHOLE drama of HTML5/JS replacing Flash all started IMO, is from the fact that SWF players/FLV videos can’t be played (for now) thru iPhones or iPads.

I read/hear numerous quote requests from clients that they “must have” their website videos to be played from iPhones/iPads…. a must why?!

Like someone wrote in this thread, iPhone less than 5% of web searches. That’s amazing to me that it’s still a must have, but hey the customer/clients always right I guess.

Because of the amount of these requests, we’ve had to add a download link or embed 3GP or MP4 videos for iPhone only on websites, but we still use SWF/FLV for PC video playback. Also had to add 3GP/MP4 now to video encoding system on all accounts too – just because of iPhone requests for video playback!

We’ve looked at several HTML5 video players to incorporate into our hosting platform, but all have their own little cross-browser issues right now. It does look promising though and I believe in the near future – fully production ready solutions are near.

Another interesting note is that most “good” HTML5 video players we’ve looked at have Flash “fallbacks” which basically will play Flash FLV if JS is unavailable or turned off in the browser.

All of this boils down to a serious kudos to Apple for having a super-strong branding and marketing department! My lord, people are iPhone/iPad crazy. I have a 16Gb iPhone 3GP too, love it, but it still won’t walk my dog, take out the trash, or cook my supper yet:) And I won’t be upgrading to the new “4GP” anytime soon, or every year either when a “New Version” comes out, my old 3GP iPhone gets it done fine.

I hope the FLV playback for iPhone/iPad happens soon, I would think it has too. There are too many smartphones which take Flash, and if Apple doesn’t or impedes progress of SWF/FLV’s on their IOS, it will just open the marketshare up to the competition, like Android and many others.

It’s all very interesting and exciting right now though in web 3.0. I love the progress being made in whole for the web and mobile, the future possibilities are quite mind boggling to say the least.

Mike Sayre
BoonJack Media