The competition between the rival multimedia platforms HTML5 and Flash Player has been going on ever since Apple decided against supporting the-then dominant – Flash Player on its devices in favour of HTML5. Given the almost total market dominance of HTML5 at the time, this seemed a strange move, but the reservations about Flash Player that Apple indicated was behind its decision, have become increasingly apparent since then – while HTML5 has advanced steadily. So what does the competition between the two mean for the internet?
It will be of relevance for anyone whose internet usage involves media such as video, graphics and animation – with one of the major areas of internet use where these media are employed being gaming Thus the gaming market – both those who play them at online casino sites and other places – and the companies behind them, are a big market for both of these platforms, even in smaller niches like Australian online casinos. There are significant differences in the way that HTML5 and Flash actually work however, that are important both for gamers and games companies and developers. Whereas Flash Player is an external platform, which needs to be downloaded onto your computer in order to be able to access the graphics, video and animation elements of online casino and other games, HTML5 allows companies – and users – to access these without any external downloads. On the one hand this makes HTML5 simply an easier option for most gamers, but it also means that it is also likely to prove more stable as a platform for these media than Flash – which has a tendency to crash.
This is likely to make it a popular option with online casino sites, as a way of enabling the graphics and video that are an increasingly sophisticated and important element of these games, but it could also make it more popular in the long-term with gamers who want to reduce the amount of downloading required for gaming. At the moment, there are still a lot more Flash compatible games than HTML5 ones, but HTML5 is likely to close the gap in this area over the coming years.
