In the world of the internet, there is always room for 1 more post about a common platform. Here is my 2 cents…..
I started using Flash in the late 1990′s, while Macromedia still owned it. Why? Because I was frustrated with the lack of features and compatibility across the browsers. Sound familiar?
YES, it is true, that in the very near future, at a single point in time, all browsers will support HTML5/JS and will be equal; It will seem for a year or two that everything is great.
Then new ideas/technology will be invented and inserted into browsers. Why will this happen? Beacuse it happened in the past. Remember that browsers are made by companies in business and competition in business drives business decisions.
Do you think that once all browsers are equal the developers will say, “HEY, we don’t need to make another browser ever again, or make a new release, it’s done!”
Another reason that HTML5/JS isn’t the silver bullet it’s sold to us as, is because of something called Hegemony, and arrogance. And to see this in action, simply go to this link and click on any one of the showcases:- (in a non-Safari browser)
Business is about struggle and ownership. And anyone in business is fully aware of marketshare and influencing the market, especially if they’re on the Stock Market.
SO, if you’re building a potential future Legacy product, and you want it to work in many browsers in the future, pick Silverlight or Flash. Or if you want to ensure that it will have marketshare, just pick Silverlight.
If you want to make it work across multiple devices, code for them natively to support their unique hardware and feature set, it will be cheaper in the long run.
My 2 cents.