# Excited about Flash and HTML5

By [Continuations](https://continuations.com) · 2009-10-06

adobe systems, flash, html5, competition

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Adobe made a couple of big announcements about the future of [Flash](http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/flashpro/) on mobile platforms.  First, they announced that [RIM has committed to making full Flash available](http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200910/100509RIMjoinsOSP.html) on BlackBerries.  Second, they showed [an early version of compiling Flash into native iPhone apps](http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashcs5/appsfor_iphone/) as a way of getting them into the app store.   Now some of the discussion has focused on all the [problems with flash](http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=862228).  And yes, there are many problems with Flash, the biggest being that it is a proprietary and closed system controlled by a single company.  But for the time being that is also its greatest strength.  Because the browser makers are a fractured bunch – witness the latest spat [between Google](http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9138522/Google_barks_back_at_Microsoft_over_Chrome_Frame_security) [and Microsoft](http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/092409-microsoft-blasts-google-over-chrome.html) ([and Mozilla](http://blog.lizardwrangler.com/2009/09/28/browser-soup-and-chrome-frame/)) over the Chrome Frame plugin – that is making web development needlessly difficult.  So my contention is that competition is a good thing and the more ubiquitous Adobe can make Flash, the more it will help to shape [HTML5](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_5) into viable alternative that actually works.  And as this [rant on HTML5 drag and drop](http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2009/09/the_html5_drag.html) or the endless [codec debate for the HTML5 video tag](http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/07/decoding-the-html-5-video-codec-debate.ars) suggest, we have a long way to go there.  So I am cheering on Adobe and hoping that the browser makers get the message.  

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*Originally published on [Continuations](https://continuations.com/excited-about-flash-and-html5)*