What do you think of FLASH (everywhere)??? by Carole Guevin

What do you think of FLASH (everywhere)???

Did you know? Macromedia Mobile vision: the Flash plug-in is the most ubiquitous technology on the Web. Now Macromedia wants Flash everywhere; on your PC, PDA, interactive television, and most importantly, on your mobile phone.

What do you think of that?

Comments from Stefan Szakal:

I think it's important for any developer to have a standard set of tools he can use to publish his/her work for any medium. Having said that, I think it's great!

However, I am also worried. If Macromedia will hold the keys to all the gates, aren't we facing a new Microsoft monster? The day I see the first service pack being offered for Flash, I'll quit my job :).

Comments from Tomek Zemla:

Well, there are different consequences of Macromedia's push to have Flash 'everywhere'. The positive one is that the more popular the plugin is the more corporate clients will be willing to develop company's websites using this technology. There is still very stong anti-Flash feeling among corporate customers.

Designers and developers like the tool, but clients still say 'I don't want Flash' even before considering the benefits. So, the more ubiquitous the plugin is the easier will be for the design studios to use it on commercial (i.e. paying) projects. That's a good thing!

Now, SWF format is proprietary, so we're heading towards the situation where one company controls the dominant multimedia technology for online projects. This is somewhat similar to Microsoft and Windows monopoly and it effectively prevents small companies to enter the multimedia plugin playing field - they have to follow Macromedia's SWF standard if they want to survive. It would be much safer for consumers if SWF was an open standard where others have a say where it's going in the future. These are just examples of potential consequences.

Personally I feel that the growing popularity of the plugin is a good thing. It became a mature tool in recent years, a nice combination of a graphic design package and software development platform that works reliably on major platforms. I think that we're yet to see to most ambitious Flash projects and overall the chances for interesting developments are growing...

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Interesting views indeed! And yours are?

-> next: From a green bag to a fab event

Editorials by Carole Guevin