I have read several articles suggesting whether HTML 5 is a Flash killer. Not it is not, but in this age of new technology, it is quite important to make the right choice of technology.

There are 2 important considerations while choosing a technology – reach and features.

Features
In terms of features, Flash will be ahead and currently available features in Flash are better than those proposed in HTML5. However several demo apps in the market show that HTML5 will have a good improved feature set, if not the best.

Reach
Morgan Stanley expects smartphones and mobile internet to be the major drivers of next generation of internet growth. According to them, “The mobile Internet is ramping faster than desktop Internet did”. Since Flash has limited reach over there, it makes sense to go for HTML5, which is likely to be adopted more quickly.

In terms of reach, Flash is installed on 99% of the browsers. However, if we consider mobile reach, Flash is not available on iPhone, iPod and iPad. Also, on the mobiles it is available, it runs Flash Lite and not exactly Flash. Apple and other mobile companies have not clearly embraced the Flash platform for their devices, due to the proprietory nature of the plugin. Also Flash makes browsers crash significantly more.

HTML5 has a long way to evolve to be displayed correctly in majority of the browsers. On the other hand, we can be sure that HTML5 will be implemented someday on desktop and mobile browsers.

In terms of investing for the long term in web products and applications it makes sense to go for HTML5 to preserve investments by easily adapting applications for the mobile platform. However, if you are making a web banner or front page banner, I really wouldn’t advise switching to HTML5 for the same.