Do We Really Need Flash Animation?
Now, let’s put it in another perspective. There are nearly 200 400* million popular mobile devices – with a web browser – that may not be able to render your Flash website or Flash content.
Here’s the sales breakdown of Apple mobile devices through March 2011:
Share:
- Apple’s iPad is responsible for 2.1% of Web traffic in the U.S. [Source]
- Apple’s Share of US Smartphone Market to Reach 30% This Year.
[Source]
*Updated 09/12/2012
Don’t Use Flash? Surely You Can’t Be Serious?
{ I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley. }
To be fair, these are worldwide sales numbers, and some portion of these devices have become inactive due to attrition.
Also, it can be argued that Adobe Flash can certainly enrich the user experience. Depending on the source, over 95% of web browsers have the Adobe Flash player installed.
Looking at the web analytics device stats for the scores of websites I manage, I see a very clear upward trend of iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and other mobile devices accessing business websites.
Imagine how frustrating it is to see a blank area on the page where some interesting Flash animation should be.
Considering all of the above, the case is clear to me. If there isn’t a legitimate business reason, you need to consider non-Flash alternates and video.
What are your thoughts, pro/con? Please leave a comment below.
FYI, new stats on how many iOS devices since 2007:
"The company has sold more than 400 million iOS devices since the first iPhone debuted in 2007." http://www.macworld.com/article/1168517/tim_cook_…
Thanks for the feedback, Lukasz.
For clients that can afford it and have a legitimate business reason, I recommend creating a mobile friendly version of their website. But the reality is many small business clients wont pay for it.
After experimenting with a number of plugins for popular Content Management Systems (CMS), I've noticed that they don't usually create a delightful mobile browsing experience without extensive customization.
Ultimately, each business needs to evaluate what their prospect uses and determine how to provide the ideal web experience in the prospect's desired medium.
Hi Roland,
first of all, it needs to be said that browsing websites on mobiles is less popular than text messaging voice services and using apps. The amount of time spent (400 minutes a month) and number of websites visited is much lower than on personal computers.
In general, as we can see in web analytics, mobile visits are 1-3%. It's less than visitors with small screen resolutions (800×600), outdated browser (IE6) etc.
Reason why clients decide to build mobile friendly websites are because of who's using mobiles not how many people. These are not a numbers justified decisions.
Of course that depend on website type – news portals should have a versioned designed exclusively for mobiles.
best,
Lukasz