Flash alternatives give notice to Adobe

The emergence of alternative technologies to Adobe Flash is part of the typical pattern in technology commoditization, according to industry voices who say this trend underscores need for proprietary vendors to jump through higher hoops to remain competitive.

In addition to evolving Web standards such as HTML5, other offerings have surfaced as potential threats by positioning themselves as alternatives to the feature set found in Adobe's popular Web player.

An effort called Smokescreen, for example, offers a Javascript player that can be written into a Web page and is capable of playing Flash files. A Flash plugin is required to be installed on user systems for the machines to run Flash files.

Another effort is the Akihabara set of Javascript tools and libraries, aimed at allowing fast game development with HTML5. The games and apps made with the Akihabara suite will also run in browsers without the need for the Flash plugin.

For more of this story, read Flash alternatives raise bar for Adobe on ZDNet Asia.