Flash Outperforms HTML5 on Mobile Devices

[theeedude]

I guess Steve Jobs doesn't know what he's talking about. Flash destroyed HTML5 on Android, but here is the kicker, iOS4 sucks at HTML5 compared to Froyo.

http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2010/09/17/flash-outperforms-html5-on-mobile-devices/

2x perf AND 2x battery life

Conclusion:
HTML5 will sit side by side with Flash. Gradient fonts, drop shadows, basic video and simple transitions are probably better suited for HTML5. When it comes to rendering display objects, animation and digital rights management for video, it would be silly not to use Flash. But wait Chris, HTML5 performance is going to get better! I’ll believe it when I see it. Adobe continues to raise the bar and it will be an uphill battle to catch up.

 

[QueBert]

Flash is hooooooorible on my Droid 1, I installed it just to see what it would do. I tried to watch 2 low resolution videos off Stephen Colbert's site, one wouldn't play at all, and the other ran at about 10fps and the audio sounded about 3x slow. If Flash is better than HTML5 we're in trouble.

 

[TheStu]

My understanding was that in that test, the HTML5 section was very poorly coded. Was it was properly optimized, the test flipped.

 

[theeedude]

My understanding was that in that test, the HTML5 section was very poorly coded. Was it was properly optimized, the test flipped.

Umm, Froyo spanked iOS on SAME HTML5 code. Maybe it's iOS browser that's very poorly coded.

 

[QueBert]

Umm, Froyo spanked iOS on SAME HTML5 code. Maybe it's iOS browser that's very poorly coded.

doubtful it's based on the rootkit, which is the same as Chrome. I would imagine Androids browser is derived from Chrome. On a PC or Mac Safari would beat up Chrome in these benchmarks, somethings fishy here.

 

[theeedude]

doubtful it's based on the rootkit, which is the same as Chrome. I would imagine Androids browser is derived from Chrome. On a PC or Mac Safari would beat up Chrome in these benchmarks, somethings fishy here.

See for yourself then, what FPS do you get? You can also view source code and tell us what's fishy.
http://www.blackcj.com/blog/wp-content/jsdemos/BallBounce/

 

[trmiv]

For HTML5 I get around 45 FPS on my rooted Droid 1 (running ShadowROM). If I bump SetCPU from 250-1000 to 1000-1000 I get around 50 FPS.

For Flash I get 58 FPS

 

[MrX8503]

This is not a definitive test. Here is the same demo with multiple balls in HTML5.

http://www.mattryall.net/demo/bouncing/

I get 50-60 fps on my iPhone 4. How each platform is coded/optimized varies the performance greatly.

 

[theeedude]

This is not a definitive test. Here is the same demo with multiple balls in HTML5.

http://www.mattryall.net/demo/bouncing/

I get 50-60 fps on my iPhone 4. How each platform is coded/optimized varies the performance greatly.

That is exactly the point. One platform gets good results out of the box from an average developer, the other requires fine tuning and optimization. If you are counting on the web designer to do the hand optimizations, you are going to get a mixed bag.

 

[Stang289]

I am getting 48-49 on my Pre Plus. I also get 48-49 on this test that looks exactly the same. My friends iPhone4 get the same results as the chart included by the OP from the link the OP provided, but he gets double fps on the test I linked to. Something fishy is going on here.

 

[TheStu]

Umm, Froyo spanked iOS on SAME HTML5 code. Maybe it's iOS browser that's very poorly coded.

That is distinctly possible. I just remember seeing all this on twitter, and a few people were pointing out that after a very small amount of optimization, the iPhone score doubled. So either they were optimizing it for the iPhone, or they were simply streamlining the code. I am not sure.

Another person pointed out that the HTML5 FPS counter was updating differently and that was somehow skewing the results... but I am not an SE or a web designer, so I can't speak to that.

 

[MrX8503]

That is exactly the point. One platform gets good results out of the box from an average developer, the other requires fine tuning and optimization. If you are counting on the web designer to do the hand optimizations, you are going to get a mixed bag.

There are simply way too many factors to determine if this is a fair comparison. If you look through the posts on that website there are a lot of collaborations.

 

[zerocool84]

What's funny is that HTML5 is an open standard yet Apple tries to make their own closed standards within it. They complain about Flash being closed yet are trying to make HTML5 the same thing and still say that Flash sucks on mobile devices yet they've been proven wrong on that as well.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

What's funny is that HTML5 is an open standard yet Apple tries to make their own closed standards within it. They complain about Flash being closed yet are trying to make HTML5 the same thing and still say that Flash sucks on mobile devices yet they've been proven wrong on that as well.

How is Apple trying to make their own closed standards within it?

 

[QueBert]

What's funny is that HTML5 is an open standard yet Apple tries to make their own closed standards within it. They complain about Flash being closed yet are trying to make HTML5 the same thing and still say that Flash sucks on mobile devices yet they've been proven wrong on that as well.

Flash does suck, on my GF's Droid 2 I tried watching 2 videos on colbertnation.com and both were completely unwatchable. Then I tried to play Treasure whatever on her Facebook, and it ran like 5fps. Southparkstudios.com played video fine, but when you can't play a simple flash game on FB I'm going to have to go with Flash isn't ready for cell phones yet. I'm willing to bet a huge number of people bought Android devices recently because of the Flash 10.1 support thinking they could play games on Facebook. Unless performance increases about 4x I don't see anyone putting up with the lag.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

How is Apple trying to make their own closed standards within it?

According to Daily Tech: the H.264 Video Codec

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

According to Daily Tech: the H.264 Video Codec

What's wrong with H.264?

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

What's wrong with H.264?

It was mentioned in the article that it's a proprietary part? I don't know, I'm just sayin...

 

[TheStu]

Although h264 is not an open standard like say... ogg, it does have backing from Apple, Microsoft, and Google. All three are supporting its use for HTML5 video. Also, some flash videos are h264 as well.

Part of why Apple is supporting it is because there are existing hardware decoders (like whats in the iPhone currently IIRC) that will handle h264. There are none that will handle ogg.

At this point, IIRC the governing body for h264 has declared that it is not going to pursue licensing fees in perpetuity. Thus obviating the licensing concern that Mozilla has regarding backing it for their HTML5 stuff.

Senseamp, do you have any other examples of Apple trying to make their own closed standards within HTML5?

 

[theeedude]

Although h264 is not an open standard like say... ogg, it does have backing from Apple, Microsoft, and Google. All three are supporting its use for HTML5 video. Also, some flash videos are h264 as well.

Part of why Apple is supporting it is because there are existing hardware decoders (like whats in the iPhone currently IIRC) that will handle h264. There are none that will handle ogg.

At this point, IIRC the governing body for h264 has declared that it is not going to pursue licensing fees in perpetuity. Thus obviating the licensing concern that Mozilla has regarding backing it for their HTML5 stuff.

Senseamp, do you have any other examples of Apple trying to make their own closed standards within HTML5?

Huh? I think you are confusing me with another poster.
What I am seeing is Android supports both Flash and HTML5, and also runs HTML5 better than iOS.
If you are going to only support one format, you better nail it, and iOS doesn't.

 

[TheStu]

Huh? I think you are confusing me with another poster.
What I am seeing is Android supports both Flash and HTML5, and also runs HTML5 better than iOS.
If you are going to only support one format, you better nail it, and iOS doesn't.

You said that Apple is adding closed things to HTML5. Someone else mentioned h264 and I addressed that. So I was asking if you, who said that they were adding closed things, happened to, you know... have sources that you cared to cite about those closed things. Was it h264 like BTRY mentioned, or was there something else?

 

[Phynaz]

That is exactly the point. One platform gets good results out of the box from an average developer, the other requires fine tuning and optimization. If you are counting on the web designer to do the hand optimizations, you are going to get a mixed bag.

Prove your provided link wasn't fine tuned and optimized for the Android platform.

 

[zerocool84]

Prove your provided link wasn't fine tuned and optimized for the Android platform.

lol that could be said with any link anywhere. Ones that Apple did to make Flash look bad and HTML look good or Android did or so on. So basically they're all bad to you.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Although h264 is not an open standard like say... ogg, it does have backing from Apple, Microsoft, and Google. All three are supporting its use for HTML5 video. Also, some flash videos are h264 as well.

Part of why Apple is supporting it is because there are existing hardware decoders (like whats in the iPhone currently IIRC) that will handle h264. There are none that will handle ogg.

At this point, IIRC the governing body for h264 has declared that it is not going to pursue licensing fees in perpetuity. Thus obviating the licensing concern that Mozilla has regarding backing it for their HTML5 stuff.

Senseamp, do you have any other examples of Apple trying to make their own closed standards within HTML5?

Can't have said it any better. And it wasn't senseamp it was BTRY B 529th FA BN.

 

[MrX8503]

Like I said this is not a definitive test. Btw I think h264 is awesome.