HTML5 and JS, as-is, don't quite match all the capabilities of Flash(perhaps Silverlight too, but I have less familiarity there). This is not to belittle the fact that the feature gap is definitely narrowing, but as long as the incumbent Adobe can continue adding strong reasons to stay on Flash and Flash supports "the majority" of client platforms, support isn't going to completely crumble.
In Flash 10 the features have included optimizations in the form of typed arrays, some 3D+shader support, and fully client-side file save and load operations. These things are all missing in our present-to-near-future HTML/JS platform, so I think Adobe knows the plot here quite well.
Don't forget Flex/AIR that let you develop hybrids for the browser and desktop.
Flash has slowly matured out of the "punch the monkey"/videoplayer/games niche over the last years and the >90% installed userbase is not going anywhere soon.
I despise adobe and the various problems (linux plugin) like the next guy. But still I'm using it for a lot of frontend work - simply because creating a RIA with HTML and Javascript is like peeling your eyes out with a spoon.
HTML5 won't change that fundamentally, at best it's a babystep into a welcome direction.
Downvotes without comment are just lovely. I realize this is not a popular opinion ("OMG, he defends flash!"). But unless you have worked with both HTML/JS and Flash/Flex it'd be great if you could at least add a comment to your vote.
Agreed. I work with Flash developers, and the way they work is so many light years different from how web programmers work that I wonder how anyone can think it's even comparable to HTML/JS at all.
In Flash 10 the features have included optimizations in the form of typed arrays, some 3D+shader support, and fully client-side file save and load operations. These things are all missing in our present-to-near-future HTML/JS platform, so I think Adobe knows the plot here quite well.