“I wouldn’t say we’re reacting to HTML5. We see whatever people are using to express themselves. … We’re going to make great tooling for HTML5. We’re going to make the best tools in the world for HTML5.”
— Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch, at the Web 2.0 Summit this May.
Adobe, which has been at the focal point of what seems like the never ending Apple induced saga surrounding Flash plugins vs. HTML5 <video> tags, announces its entry into the HTML5 space today, just in time for the new initially Flash-less MacBook Air.
In addition to its Flash products, Adobe offering up a widget that enables the creation of HTML5 videos using the Kaltura HTML5 media library, which allows browsers that don’t have HTML5 support to fall back on Flash.
From the Adobe blog:
“The limited browser support for the HTML5 tag has forced web designers to scramble for a solution that would work across platforms as well as browsers.
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San Francisco | October 27-29, 2025To help customers overcome these challenges, Adobe has released an easy-to-use, totally CSS-customizable solution that shifts gracefully from the HTML5 tag to the Flash Player when the tag is not supported. The shift takes place regardless of the screen—from phone to monitor to TV.”
The widget is available both through and independent of Adobe developer tool Dreamweaver and can be accessed in one two of ways, either through the Adobe Widget Browser if you have Adobe Air installed or through Dreamweaver itself via its “Customize Widget” function.
It seems like with this most recent product step, Adobe is making a noble attempt at straddle both sides of the fence, as well as trying to ensure that it has a future supporting web video and media in light of Apple’s ongoing anti-Flash efforts.
Image via: Randy Humphries
