INFO
About Flash
The content can be made interactive (hyperlinks within the viewing window for navigation)
The file sizes are very small while maintaining excellent quality.
Allows for a large degree of creative freedom including special effects, text and animations.
Shockwave Flash format has been around for a very long time and is readily available as a free browser plug-in. A high percentage of interesting visual web content is presented in Flash.
Common Web Authoring program permits direct embedding of shockwave for a seamless appearance.
Provides some copy protection
Extremely quick compiling and updating of website
No other program (format) is currently available which meets the above criteria.
Works very well on computers, Android Smart Phones/Tablets and Blackberry Playbook
More.....
Flash is by far the best (only) format for interactive slideshow style animations with pan and zoom effects.
It offers an excellent way to author and present interesting, informative and educational visual content quickly and easily. All computers can display Flash, but currently not all mobile devices can.
Because still photos comprise the content in Flash, not true movie "video", the file size for an excellent quality output is very small. Typically less than a Megabyte. With the pseudo video effects displayed in Flash presentations, it is a great alternative to using Movie Formats, which are much larger files, and often are not any more "cross platform" than Flash, however the mobile "i-products" seem to be the only ones unable to utilize Flash. The emphasis with those products appears to be for entertainment....downloading games, movies and music, not for a total internet experience, as Flash is used extensively on many websites. Flash files can be converted to movie formats, and when they are, can become huge files...on the order of 10 to 50 times larger. This of course affects download time and therefore smoothness and quality, not to mention the loss of interactivity (hyperlinks disappear). The other side effect can be that some movie files downloads to a Droid, and does not appear as embedded web page images as Flash does. Flash files are not downloaded to your computer, but are displayed on-line through a web browser plug-in while on the internet.
From the standpoint of the FREE "Sharing" philosophy, Flash represents a means for the author to retain the production, unlike many other formats that simply and easily get transferred to the computer. The "Read Only" aspect of the web plug in viewer is very appealing to many authors.
There have been some concerns about security when viewing flash content. The Program I use to create the flash tours does not permit writing code or scripts....only allows arranging photos and adding text through the program dialogue boxes. No malicious content can be imbedded in the swf files!!!
Video Formats (like MP4) are great for Hollywood style Movie Entertainment productions, and serve their purpose for that very well.
When HTML5 permits all of the features currently available with creating Flash, a transition to that format might occur, especially if it benefits the usage on all smartphones.