By now you have probably seen Apple’s surprisingly lacklustre HTML5 showcase (or not if you don’t want to install Safari). The demo’s have drawn criticism for the use of browser sniffing, vendor specific prefixes, reverting to the quicktime plugin on the iPhone and the use of the patent-backed H.264 video codec (part owned by Apple). Which would be fine if this was presented a tech demo, but its being promoted as a wholesale, standards compliant replacement to Flash that you can use today.

In response, Antonio Holguin has put together an alternative Flash showcase that of course, works on all browsers. While its exciting to have a competitor to Flash (Adobe really needed an accurately placed kick) Apple’s own demos show Flash is not a “old” technology and for the foreseeable future HTML5 is simply not ready for real world deployment.

Breaking News.. pot calls kettle black

Its strange to hear Steve Jobs profess concern about a open web when everything else his company does is so militantly closed. This is the company that first put DRM into music, that won’t let your change your own battery, will tie to you to one phone carrier and will only let you install software from their store.

OK, but we are talking about the open web, not Apple’s OS…

People tend to associate Flash content with two things; video and games. Fortunately Jobs provides alternatives for both, for video he cites the H.264 codec. Which is fine, but isn’t H.264 a licensed, closed technology? so much so that the Firefox developers want nothing to do with it. Apple are also the company that have their own propriety, closed video plugin – quicktime, something Jobs appears to have forgotten all about.

As for games, Jobs mentions the 50,000 games in the App store, you know the same marketplace where you have to buy a Mac, pay a yearly license fee and pray Apple deems it worthy and does not pull it for some arbitrary reason. Ironically, a lot of those App store games are Flash ports, which otherwise could have been universally viewable on nearly every device with a internet connection.

Apple CEO, Steve jobs has posted a extraordinary, lengthy article about his feelings towards Flash. It’s surprising that Jobs feels the need to attack another companies product this publicly. If you are a Flash developer it’s pretty grim reading, with Jobs claiming Flash is not a “modern” technology and has no place on mobile devices:

New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.

While he provides a number of plausible sounding reasons, it is important to note that he does not reveal his business motivations. Adobe’s Flash exporter would have meant it would have been very easy to target multiple mobile devices thus losening the Apple developer stranglehold. Flash and Air would have also posed a significant threat to the lucrative App store. Finally the fact the he throws around words like “propriety” and “openness” around with no sense of irony, means his reality distortion field is clearly cranked up to 11.

View Steve’s thoughts on Flash

It’s no secret that some people view Flash as major annoyance, labelling it a CPU hog, security risk and ultimately, an unnecessary part of the web. This has lead to inventions like Flash Block and a general animosity towards the technology. Fortunately, its not too late for Adobe to change some opinions. Here are 5 things that we think could greatly improve the day to day usage of the Flash Plugin.