I was considering purchasing Opera's Wii Internet Channel the other day. Considering, until some web surfing revealed that the browser could not access Hulu. At first I was rather perplexed as to why Opera of all software makers would bundle an outdated version of Flash with their browser. I was furious for a while because it is absolutely unacceptable to advertise yourself so heavily as a feature-rich software package and be outdated. Until I realized Opera wasn't at fault.
The problem lies in Adobe's policies regarding the use of Flash on platforms other than the standard Windows, OS X, and Linux. In order to run Flash on a platform such as the Wii, the Flash SDK is needed. Adobe for some odd reason decided to keep their Flash SDK at version 7, which is poor judgement especially considering the rich content delivered through Flash on very popular web sites such as Youtube cannot be accessed on increasingly popular platforms such as game consoles and mobile devices.
When will a true open platform arise that delivers content on multiple platforms without locking users into version discrepancies? The answer is rather ambiguous because of the lack of a true open medium of rich content delivery. JavaScript is great, but the limits to JavaScript are within the boundaries of user and browser interactions. The medium of video delivery is still Flash. Microsoft's attempt at a walled garden, Silverlight, will not fix any issues with regards to platform independence. Adobe and Microsoft have different goals. Adobe wants more people using Flash, while Microsoft wants more people using Windows. Silverlight is treated as an addition to Windows rather than a standalone medium. For now, Flash is the winner; and in all righteousness Flash should be the winner.
The problems with Flash are also numerous when considering the fact that it simply requires a download. The primary reason Adobe received such high market penetration on their latest Flash version (97%) is the constant hassle of multiple websites presisting that a visitor downloads Flash. By no means is Flash a bad technology, but if it were more open, browsers would be able to ship with innate Flash functionality. If it works for Six Apart and Google, it should work for Adobe.