A few months ago we talked about the inevitable demise of Adobe's long lived multimedia platform in "The Death of Flash". Most of us in the development community have been aware of the decline in Flash for some time, but now it is catching some serious main-stream attention.

Steve Jobs of Apple Computers, made headlines with the release of his detailed Thoughts on Flash explaining why they will not support the platform on any of their mobile devices (currently the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad). Shortly after, Adobe CEO, Shantanu Narayen, spoke with the Wall Street Journal and tried to assure the Flash community of their ongoing commitment to the technology.

As we mentioned before, the battle is far from over and Adobe still has a very strong foothold on the desktop (where most web browsing takes place) but their fate is likely already sealed. It will take some time before we stop seeing Flash websites, but it is happening already.

There are several technologies taking on Flash from multiple fronts. Most notably, we are seeing HTML5, h.264 (video), Javascript and CSS3 moving in on Flash territory. These are all open standards and already supported on many web browsers and mobile devices.

The web transitioned long ago from a presentation medium to an interactive platform and for many years Flash was the way to give users the richest experience. As web standards have evolved and web-browsing platforms have diverged, we find the role of Flash significantly minimized in the day-to-day web.

Finding Apple on the opposite side of the playing field from Adobe is surprising to some, but it is a clearly strategic business move for them and will accelerate the demise of Flash in a global way.