Here’s a video I’ve been meaning to post for a few weeks now. It shows performance comparisons for Flash Player 10.1 against HTML 5 across both the Mac and the Google Nexus One. In order to perform the test a simple particle engine was written that was easily translatable between ActionScript and Canvas. The tests weren’t actually restricted to Flash and HTML 5, with versions of the particle engine also being written in HTML and SVG.
The short answer is that Flash is still king but the other technologies, in particular Canvas, were catching up. Of particular interest was Flash Player 10.1’s performance on the Google Nexus One. The HTML 5 demo on the Nexus One was managing approximately 13 frames per second while the same demo running in Flash was hitting between 26-28 frames per second. Even running in Safari on the Mac the Flash demos outperformed the same HTML 5 demos.
All very interesting but admittedly the tests are hardly the most scientific. If you’re interested then jump over to Michael Chaize’s blog where you can find out more.