There are a few disagreements that I’ve still got.  First, in addition to the iPhone not displaying Flash, other popular phones including Windows Mobile Devices and Palm also will not display properly either.  Second, while iPhone controls only 1.1% of the total market share for ALL cellular devices, depending on who you ask, it controls 16-30% of the market for SmartPhones, meaning that as many as 1 in 3 of the phones built for browsing can’t see your Flash-based website.  

Nike.com is a great site.  You could not have accomplished the same WOW factor in HTML.  However, Endless.com is also an amazing e-commerce shoe site.  My personal opinion is that Endless is easier to use.  The navigation is immediate, the interface is familiar and the back button takes me back one page, rather than back to the beginning.

I’d also say that if you’re going to use Flash, use it!  Why can I zoom in on the details of the shoe on Endless, a non-Flash site, and not on Nike?  As I said in the previous posting, use Flash to add value, not just for kicks.  It’s definitely slower to load and usually less intuitive than HTML counterparts, so make sure that you are adding value other than just  ”pretty”. 

Before finishing with Nike, I’d also say that this site would fall more into the Portfolio category that I mentioned was still okay for Flash sites.  It is, afterall, a portfolio of their shoes, in the same way that we produced several all-flash art/exhibit portfolios for the Indiana State Museum.  Notice that when you go to Nike’s Corporate Site (also an awesome site), you can do a quick run-through without finding a stitch of Flash.

It’s a disagreement between several developers and the conversation will likely go on.  From our viewpoint, Flash is becoming more popular, but as an element, rather than the entire site.  I don’t see a day soon when we’ll see a significant percentage of corporate sites moving to all-Flash.  However, we’ll keep our ears and eyes out and if that’s what their users demand, we xiik geeks will be among the first agencies to change course and lead our clients that way.  I think that the overall lesson is “know thy audience.”

Thank you again, Mark, for sparking such an interesting discussion!