Adobe Systems today announced it's public preview release of Adobe Edge, the new HTML5 web motion and interaction design tool that allows web designers to bring animation, similar to that created in Flash, to websites using standards likes HTML, JavaScript and CSS.
Because of rapid changes around HTML5, this tool will enable all web developers who love to create web content with motion and transitions. Adobe Edge is being designed as a fast and lightweight professional-grade tool that complements Adobe's existing Web tools, such as Adobe Dreamweaver CS5.5, Adobe Flash Professional CS5.5 and Adobe Flash Builder 4.5 software.
Adobe was obviously hedging its bets on Flash/Air’s viability in the long term with mobile when they started introducing HTML5 capabilities through Edge. If Adobe’s planning to offer interactive, Flash-like development with HTML5, Adobe Edge may become the beginning of the end for Flash. It will likely always exist, but it might not be the de facto standard for delivering interactive web (or mobile) content anymore.
In the frontal war between Adobe and Apple, Flash has been labeled an outlaw and Air is smuggled in like an illegal immigrant by Apple. Flash is indeed a huge threat because it provides the rich app experience and rich content directly from producer to consumer complete with copyright protection and completely outwith iTunes and the App Store and so Apple’s 100% control and 30% tax.
But, Apple has continually proven that is has the most marketable mobile devices available, and has done so without any back pedaling on what they will and will not allow. Something had to give if Adobe was going to get a real foothold in the mobile world, and it obviously wasn’t coming in the form of their current solutions.
On other side, Flash’s userbase had become bigger than that of any browser, bigger than Java’s, bigger even than Windows. This cartoon-doodling app had somehow become “the world’s most pervasive software”.
But now, Adobe is looking to the future. Will HTML5 do increasingly more of what Flash currently does and is more platform independent than Flash. Future will tell.