The war between Flash and HTML recently intensified with the release of Apple’s revolutionary iPad. Adobe has been working on its Creative Suite 5 to make it easier for developers to create Flash and AIR applications that are compatible with the software that runs on the iPod and iPad. Meanwhile, Apple was developing iPhone OS 4, which will run on current iPod Touches, iPhones, and future versions of iPads. With OS 4 came a change in the terms for developers.

In the new version of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement, section 3.3.1 now reads:

3.3.1 – Applications may only use the documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Apps must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C can be compiled and linked directly with the documented APIs (p (eg, Applications that link to the documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

Apple is forcing Flash and encouraging developers to use the listed languages ​​and HTML5 and CSS3 for web content. Is this a win for HTML?

Adobe isn’t happy about banning the Flash compiler for iPhone, but that doesn’t stop them from developing and improving Flash. Since Flash can still produce some amazing effects that no amount of HTML5 or JavaScript can achieve at the same speed, they still have a huge market share.

Here are some pros and cons of HTML and Flash:

Flash Professionals

Flash Player enables consistency across all browsers

More effects than HTML5 and JavaScript

Vector-based for easy scaling

flash tips

An external plugin must be downloaded to view Flash

Search engines don’t read Flash well

SWF files can be large and take a while to download

Advantages of HTML5

Very fast (with CSS)

canvas and video

Geolocation API

Cons of HTML5

Not fully compatible with all browsers

Limited animations/effects

Animations slower than Flash

Should I use Flash?

If it improves the user experience more than HTML would, then yes. If it just gets in the way, no.