Crisp Voices Blog

Stop Arguing about Flash vs HTML 5 and Let's Move Mobile Advertising Forward

3 May 2010 - Xavier Facon

Microsoft, Adobe, Apple and many other leading Internet enablers are now all involved in an active debate on how to move forward with content authoring in the multi-platform world. The launch of the tablet device has prompted an escalating discussion on the merits of technologies like Adobe Flash versus Object C and HTML5. It has taken ridiculous proportions. While it didn’t bother anyone initially that smart phones often don’t support Flash, with the launch of the Apple iPad, many were starting to question why. I wrote a blog post on the lack of Flash on the iPhone about a year ago but Steve Job’s comments recently have really exposed the issue in a different light.

Apple has turned from reluctantly allowing content authored with 3^rd party technologies like Flash on their mobile devices, to Steve Jobs doing a hatchet job on Flash. He provided justification for that in an open letter which revealed his passionate dislike for technologies which aren’t native to his own platform. I'm not buying every technical concern he has about Flash, but I'm not suspecting him of being disengenuous neither. I do believe however, for Apple to not give the consumer and the developer the choice to use Flash is clearly a business model issue. Some companies like to allow publishers, advertisers and developers to author content once and distribute them on many platforms. Other companies - like Apple - require native development on their platform, so that content is only available on their own market leading platform.

For apps from the App Store, Apple forces developers to use Apple's Objective-C based Cocoa API, a native and proprietary platform. Until recently, developers could also program in Flash and re-package it in Objective-C before submitting it to the App Store. This is now not allowed anymore, but the alternative Objective-C is still practical enough.

However, for content on the mobile web, Jobs makes the impractical suggestion of using the W3C defined open HTML5 standard as an alternative for Adobe's proprietary Flash. That would make a lot of sense, except no one has any tools for developing similar content with the nascent HTML5. Adobe Flash is many years ahead and, after carefully reading the technical specifications of both Flash and HTML5, I’m wondering if HTML5 will ever be able to match the level of expression that the author can achieve with Flash. This is a challenge that authors of web based rich media like video, games and advertising have to deal with now.

HTML5 is a specification for video (H.264), vector animation (canvas), interactive logic (JavaScript) and layout (CSS/HTML). Adobe Flash also covers video (FLV), vector animation (FLA), interactive logic (ActionScript) and layout. Aside from the video part which can automatically be converted (be it with some loss of functionality), the other parts of these technologies are absolutely not automatically convertible and aren't even comparable due to vast differences in sophistication. Flash is far better with animation, while HTML5 is far more efficient in simple content layout. It has been surprising how many opinions are published where that critical fact is omitted. (Including Steve Jobs open letter)

What About Mobile Advertising?

Crisp Wireless has made the bet that Flash would be too slow to come to mobile in order to be a practical technology for mobile rich media advertising. We have invested in developing a compelling framework for designers of ad units that leverage HTML5, without requiring the designer to program. Using HTML 5, we are enabling advertisers to use a single technology to deliver compelling ads across the broadest range of platforms. Using Crisp's ad building blocks, the designer can simply and easily create mobile rich media ads. Individuals interested in experimenting with the beta version of this technology are welcome to contact us –end mandatory plug.

As for mobile devices from Apple. The debate is now over. Even Adobe has cancelled their Flash initiatives on iPhone. However, Adobe will keep improving their mobile Flash technology and will find plenty of platforms, including Android, that won’t reject their technology in the near future. Apple will require developers to give their mobile devices special attention at the expense of standards that publishers and ad agencies are familiar with today. Here at Crisp Wireless we are investing in products that can bring that cost down and make the process to run more compelling display advertising easier on all leading mobile platforms. Our HTML5 strategy is part of that, but we're working to support Flash on Android as well.