Microsoft jettisons Flash with ‘plug-in free’ Windows 8 Metro IE10
The tablet-optimized Metro version of Internet Explorer 10 in Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 will be a “plug-in free experience,” as the company follows Apple's lead in abandoning Adobe Flash in favor of HTML5 on tablets.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple had already abandoned Adobe Flash for HTML5 on tablets; Microsoft is applying the same plug-in-free model to the touch-oriented Metro edition of Internet Explorer 10. That alignment makes HTML5 compatibility a requirement for sites seeking reach across the two major tablet software platforms.
The decision is limited to Metro IE10 in Windows 8, but it makes Microsoft an active participant in the shift away from browser plug-ins rather than a supplier of the Windows environment in which Flash had long been used.
First-order effects
- Windows 8 Metro users lose access to Flash and other browser plug-ins in IE10, while publishers and web-app developers must deliver HTML5-based experiences to reach them.
- Adobe loses a distribution path in Microsoft’s tablet interface as IE10 makes HTML5 the preferred content model.
Second-order effects
- Web publishers face a stronger incentive to prioritize standards-based video and interactive features, because Apple and Microsoft tablet browsers no longer provide Flash as a common fallback.
- Microsoft’s Metro web experience competes partly on battery life, stability, and touch performance associated with a plug-in-free browser, placing those qualities at the center of browser differentiation.
Third-order effects
- If tablet browsers continue to exclude plug-ins, web development shifts further from proprietary runtime dependencies toward browser standards, reducing the leverage of plug-in vendors over media delivery.
- The split between a plug-in-free touch browser and legacy desktop browsing points to platform owners controlling which web capabilities are available in their app-like interfaces.
The trend: Tablet platforms are making HTML5 the default web application layer by restricting third-party browser plug-ins.