Flash 10.1 – Failure is not an option

In light of the recent debate sparked by Steve Jobs’ comments regarding Flash and it’s perceived weaknesses I thought I’d take an opportunity to make it patently clear – the perception of Flash is that it’s a slow, memory and cpu intensive, battery sucking sun of a gun!

Now while I found it relatively easy to pick apart what Jobs said in my previous post, there’s certainly a long way to go to convince the rest of the tech world that the things he’s saying are false. It seems that Adobe are putting a good percentage of their eggs in the Flash Player 10.1 basket as a sign to all those interested in the debate that they are trying to address all (or most) of the issues that have been raised. My fear is that if this release isn’t the golden hair child that Adobe’s making it out to be, then we’ve got a bit of a case of the boy crying wolf on our hands.

The more I read (and I’ve been keeping close tabs on what both sides are saying), the more I see the battle lines are being drawn based on a lot of misinformation. Or more succinctly, the naysayers are not aware of the work that’s been going into 10.1 – fair enough I suppose, you’re only as good as your last innings…

So it’s for this reason that the only thing that really matters is that this latest release gets beta tested to buggery, delivers on the feature-set and enhancements that are being touted, and the millions of other Flash developers out there continue to have a livelihood that doesn’t involve jumping through hoops that are wasteful, and frustrating.

I’m slightly miffed that it’s taken a massive kick in the pants by a competitor (though perhaps that’s always the way…) to open Adobe’s eyes to some of the more regularly complained about issues with Flash. The issues that are now trying to be addressed aren’t new, they’re issues that Flash Designers and Developers have been on Adobe’s case about for many years … so long as their eyes are now open (and remain so), well I suppose that’s a start.

I can’t remember a tech issue that’s gotten me this energised for years! So I’m looking forward to seeing what devices start to utilise the forth coming Flash Player, and how they (and there battery life) perform.

Failure is not an option.