While Adobe’s Flash has been vilified by Apple’s Steve Jobs it is still an important part of the advertising world at least for now. comScore has produced a report that shows that 40% of the total online display ads are using Flash and rich media. The chart below shows the breakout amongst other formats.

A shift in this balance of power is going to happen because of the popularity of the iPhone and iPad. It has to unless the Apple / Adobe divide is closed. That doesn’t seem likely does it?

I think that when we look at this same situation in a year there will be a category for HTML5 and other ways to produce rich media that are not related to Flash. The popularity and influence of Apple’s suite of products isn’t something that can be ignored nor is it going away. In fact, for the foreseeable future it is likely to increase.

This non-standardized environment is going to end up having the greatest impact on advertisers who will be forced to create ads in several formats so they can reach all of their customers and prospects not just those on certain devices.

As advertisers and marketers how are you addressing this situation now and what do you think will happen over the next 12 to 18 months?