HTML5 may one day be the future of rich interactive Web content and advertising, but at the moment Adobe Flash remains the tool of choice for designers everywhere. That's a problem when exciting new smartphone and tablet platforms don't support Flash. To resolve that difference, Adobe has published a prerelease version of Wallaby: a program that converts Flash files to HTML5, using JavaScript, CSS, and SVG to produce Flash-like graphics that don't need plug-ins.

First demonstrated at last year's Adobe MAX2010 conference, the tool is currently quite limited. Neither Flash scripting nor embedded video and sound are migrated, and some of the more advanced visual effects like blends and 3D transformations are similarly unsupported. The output is also currently restricted to WebKit-based browsers—principally Safari, Safari Mobile, and Chrome—due to its use of WebKit-specific animation functionality. The tool is not yet suitable for migration of rich interactive content like games, and the lack of support for Flash scripting means that even simpler interactions will have to be rewritten using JavaScript.

Adobe says that the main goal with Wallaby is to produce output that has the best combination of performance and quality on iOS. This objective betrays Wallaby's immediate purpose: allowing advertisers to create rich ads that display correctly on the iPhone and iPad. The lack of Flash on iOS impacts both banner advertising on the Web, and ads embedded into applications using Apple's HTML5-powered iAd. Wallaby allows designers to migrate their designs and hence reduce the costs of supporting these non-Flash platforms.

With Wallaby, Adobe is clearly readying itself for a "post-Flash" era that may be ushered in with the "post-PC" era. The number of devices which either have no Flash capability or only weak support will only grow, and Adobe doesn't want to be cut out of the market completely. However, the tool also demonstrates that HTML5 is still some way from being a drop-in replacement for Flash: the latter still offers designers a richer environment with more control and flexibility. Software like Wallaby will certainly ease the transition to HTML5, but Flash isn't going to be disappearing just yet.