Wednesday Poll: Does it matter to you that mobile Flash is dead?

by: Kellex | posted 02.08.12 | Polls

Adobe announced a couple of months ago that its mobile version of Flash would no longer be developed for and that it was essentially dead. At one time, mobile Flash was one of the #1 selling points for Android phone manufacturers. Once Froyo hit, you couldn’t turn around without seeing Moto or HTC or Verizon bragging about the “full web” thanks to Adobe Flash. Now that those days are all but over and major apps like Chrome will not have mobile Flash, we are wondering if it matters to anyone. The web is moving more and more towards HTML5 and according to our poll yesterday, folks have decided that apps without Flash might be more valuable compared to those that have it. So let us know, will you miss Flash?

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147

Noonenobody

I “was” a flash developer, but really for video its garbage compared to integrated hardware accelerated video. I do not miss it.
http://www.facebook.com/jebbah Jeb Barrett

Interesting read:
http://www.onemorelevel.com/html-5-vs-flash-games/

Not really a read, mostly graphical.
Anonymous

poll is misleading.

flash isn’t dead, it’s just not being developed any farther for mobile. I couldn’t care less that I won’t receive another update to mobile flash, but I do enjoy that flash is available.
Anonymous

Does it seriously matter that much to all of you? Wow.
Raven

As much as I hate to have to use it, there are still some sites that I need to use that use flash as part of their UI. So, not daily, but it is still very nice to have when you need it.
Deiler

I don’t care for Flash, and HTML5 is way better. My problem is that support for flash is ending before HTML5 is fully adopted.
Anonymous

Should be “I could *NOT* care less.” Anyway, it just seems that flash slows down pages. I’m excited to see it go.
Mylesh55

do any of us use flash everyday? No, that’s a bad poll because it should have an in between. Flash on android is one of the major staples that has sold probably 50% of android phones to people that are the common user that were considering iPhones. If later phones completely drop flash I promise you android will lose a large chunk of common users cause they want flash.

I don’t even understand why adobe would stop support in the first place. Android is Linux based and the code for flash player is the same for Ubuntu on PC and its still being built and updated. So truly as long as that exists I’m sure a smart developer on XDA will always have flash for us
- Anonymous
  
  Majority of both Android and iOS users are everyday window-lickers and don’t know what Flash is. They get one phone or the other based on TV ads and what their friends have. Not every Android user is as tech-savvy as the rest of us and read forums on what is and isn’t supported on various platforms.
http://twitter.com/Lancer033 Keith Hollis

i have my phone set so that flash just shows a blank box and if i want to see it, i click it and it downloads and to be honest, it doesn’t come up very often. Like it or not, Steve Jobs was right about flash, the technology is crap and needs to die off, fortunately, it slowly is.
Migamix

HTML5 is not even finalized, we have no video standard anyone can agree on.. yet we are being told “you don’t need flash” {waves hand}… fine… then open source what is needed to build a flash viewer… so we have the choice just in case… I do see some sites like YouTube have the ability to have html5 only… but I set mine for this a year ago… and it switched back to flash… if I need flash on my desktop… I will need it on my phone… as my phone IS my computer away from home…
- http://profiles.google.com/chris.ncic Chris Anderson
  
  As time moves on mobile devices may entirely replace personal pc’s for light users. Especially if connecting a mobile device to a larger resolution screen, and input devices becomes easier for people. Meaning to some extent like you mentioned people may expect more from their mobile device in the future.
Anonymous

Its nice to be able to watch flash videos that don’t have an html 5 view option, other than that its not a big deal.
Joshua Dudash

I’ll continue to use a flash enabled browser until the HTML 5 based browsers can figure out how to run content on websites that require flash.
http://profiles.google.com/chris.ncic Chris Anderson

Keep in mind a lot of flash content will be ported over the Adobe AIR runtime. So though the flash player in your browser may be deprecated you can still find great flash content (most likely mostly games) packaged as air applications. The idea is to go native instead of through your browser. Just like many of the html/js apps you already use that are wrapped as native applications. Many of the adobe apps that you can install on your phone were written using the flash platform.
- http://www.hammertechnologies.net/ Chase Johnson
  
  Just like Microsoft’s failed Silverlight? AIR is a joke.
  - http://profiles.google.com/chris.ncic Chris Anderson
    
    Feel free to defend your assertion.
    - http://www.hammertechnologies.net/ Chase Johnson
      
      For one, people DO NOT like change. Have you actually gone and read the comments for applications that require AIR to be installed? People uninstall immediately when it comes up that to run this app you have to install another. Im not saying its not functional, just that when it comes to public absorbancy I do not think it will ever catch on. People use Flash because its been around for a long time. When a new add-on is introduced, to get that add-on adopted by the masses is a great feat.
      - http://profiles.google.com/chris.ncic Chris Anderson
        
        I agree about reception. Have no idea how it’ll play out with consumers. There is an option to embed the air runtime with your app, however at the cost of adding bulk. I’m testing the waters with air on mobile, but because of the way adobe announced dropping the mobile browser flash player I’m also testing with haxe, and native. I would like for air to succeed but time will have to do it’s thing and see how this will play out. I’m hoping that similar to the browser version of flash, air might be propelled by exclusive and engaging content. I hope to be one of those pushing some of the content.
Chris G

First off, I’m loving CfA. It is changing the way I use my phone and TFP for surfing.

I do wish it could fully replace the stock browser, but still too many sites have flash or are based fully on flash.
Anonymous

nope, been using chrome for a few days now and i’ve yet to come across a video that i can’t play. Flash can go away now, bring on html5.
http://twitter.com/Justinwrites Justin True Anderson

24 hours on Chrome and I’ve had to resort to stock for flash support 4 times. meh.
edward x

I wanted to point out that you can still view youtube videos on chrome beta directly. though it is still buggy. go to youtube.com/html5 and click on join html5 trial. the youtube videos won’t load initially, but if you click and play around with the play bar, your video will load. again it’s buggy.
http://twitter.com/jdrch Judah Richardson

Actually, I care about Flash a lot. Anyone who says Flash is dead probably only visits YouTube for video. Several sites I enjoy visiting daily serve Flash video only. Remember, folks: Adobe didn’t kill mobile development because web devs were no longer using Flash, it did so because of the difficulty of getting Flash to work with the myriads of mobile devices out there. Read their announcement blog post again if you don’t believe me.
Porn

Come on guywe all know we use flash for porn 90 percent of the time otherwise its useless-thats why we dont have i hones
Tyler

I’m ok with it dying but it just needs to fall out of existence. Its slowly dying right now, i just want it dead. Where is the button to convert all web to HTML5? Its good for watching videos from sites that aren’t YouTube but that’s its. Its slow, laggy, is mostly ads, and its awkward. With all that said, its still installed on my phone.
Anonymous

I love using flash on my phone so I can have flash pop up ads blow up my phone’s screen.

/end sarcasm.
Jslafarr

Guess I’ll trade in my gnex for an iphone..
Never liked this thing anyway.
Tom

I barely use flash. Really, its not a huge deal for me. At the end of the day, I use my phone for a hand full of sites, and most flash content I use is video which can be viewed using skyfire. Is flash nice to have, just in case? Sure, but it isn’t a requirement for me anymore. I realized ho little I actually use it.
http://www.twitter.com/nblufire12 Nathan Patel

I need it… I need to watch my starcraft 2 GSL and Twitch.tv streams!!!
Staticx57

I very rarely so I voted that I could care less

But not that much less…
http://www.facebook.com/jeremygross60 Jeremy Gross

flash is the reason i dont want an iphone
Anon I. Mouse

Sites that use Flash aren’t going to disappear overnight for HTML5. So I like having the option to use it whenever I want/ need to. But I thought the time would come when our mobile devices would be able to run a desktop style browser(I thought this is what Chrome was supposed to be, with Desktop Flash embeded) and so we would still have flash-because it is only the mobile platform going away.
Rain_king46

Adobe is being arrogant and is basically begging developers to replace flash
Anonymous

I have to chime in on this. As a Flash developer i’ll definitely admit i’m bias on the topic and hate to see that it is on its way out the door. But it’s not gone yet, at least not until Chrome beta appeared yesterday. but that’s technology, the next best thing is on its way (already here?), yes its HTML5.

As far as Flash on the web is concerned, it’s still going to be supported for PC browsers and mobile apps. see article at link below. it’s specifically losing focus in the realm of mobile browsing. Which brings me to Adobe AIR. Its like the step sister no one really talks about or even knows is there. Its already on your phone probably and you didn’t realize it. That’s how i package my apps. I build in Flash, or Flash Builder, and package the apk which is interpreted by adobe AIR, not Flash.Besides, in this article you’ll read more on Adobe true intentions are more then just “killing Flash”.
http://blogs.adobe.com/flashplatform/2011/11/flash-to-focus-on-pc-browsing-and-mobile-apps-adobe-to-more-aggressively-contribute-to-html5.html

http://blogs.adobe.com/flashplayer/2011/11/focusing.html

This one is a great layout of the commitments from Adobe. Flash for PC is on. Flash Professional is coming out still with a CS6 version this year. Adobe AIR for Mobile is on.
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplatform/articles/recent-updates.html/

Sorry, i just had to try to clear somethings up. Flash is not dead!
DroidFlash

I like having the option to use it if i need to.
Logan_jinx

You really need to offer a third option like “I don’t use it regularly but I like to have it when it’s needed ” because that can actually throw off your results
Azndan4

The screenshot is so pixelated. Is it from a bionic?
Anonymous

As a designer i want to rid of it. Other technologies are surfacing and being implemented that will eventually kill flash. Browsers on phones are the most up to date and standard compliant pieces of software used for internet browsing. We should be taking advantage of that. Now if we could just get everyone in the world to realize updating their browser should be apart of their daily life if they actually have a computer they use to browse the internet. Oh the headaches with cross browser compliant code.
Kuboo99

It sort of matters to me.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Uriah-Counelis/100001440833243 Uriah Counelis

There is less of a reason for me to stick with android now that mobile flash will not be supported in the future on a lot of the phones. I use the web browser on my phone a lot and almost all of the websites I visit use flash for displaying content.
Anonymous

I have faith that Google Chrome on android will get flash support
Anonymous

Flash is not DEAD and won’t be no time soon. The beauty of android is choice and today me and my galaxy nexus chose flash plain and simple. Ics supports flash our next operating system won’t i will deal with that then. Flash will last forever one way or another
- Anonymous
  
  You’ve got to be joking me right? Flash is pretty much dead. The fact that Apple hasn’t supported it for years, the fact that it was BARELY supported on ICS, and only after customer outrage I might add, the fact that Adobe has flat out stated no more Flash for ANY mobile devices… Yeah, Flash is dying. Also, way to contradict yourself. You can’t say Flash won’t be supported on the next Android OS and then say ”Flash will live forever”, because clearly, it won’t “live forever” if it won’t be supported “forever”. Dumbass.
El Cap

Nope. The reasons to stick with Android are dwindling. Fast. Chrome to ICS and not GB was the nail in the Google coffin for me.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=25001493 Hank Godwin
  
  …ok? Then why in the hell are you still on this website? Why do you think we care if you have moved on from Google’s phones?

Wednesday Poll: Does it matter to you that mobile Flash is dead?

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