Apple has posted a lengthy rant — allegedly written by Steve Jobs (*wink* *wink*) — on its stance against using Adobe Flash on its mobile products. Some of it makes sense and some of it is definitely spin, but it’s all surprisingly entertaining. Adobe has been a valuable partner to Apple over the years, but the companies are on the verge of becoming “frenemies” due to Flash being blocked from iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.
Jobs (and probably several contributors) is against Flash since it’s proprietary, it isn’t necessary for the “full web” experience, it compromises security, it kills battery life, it doesn’t work with the touch experience, and isn’t optimized for Apple’s mobile products. Here are some of my favorite bits from the essay.
Besides the fact that Flash is closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn’t support touch based devices, there is an even more important reason we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. We have discussed the downsides of using Flash to play video and interactive content from websites, but Adobe also wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on our mobile devices.
And also:
Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.
What are you thoughts on his supreme royal high emperor Steve Jobs’ Flash rant?
Just because you can't/won't put it on your "greatest achievement ever" it is such a horrible thing now? I guess that makes a lot of people wrong and a small few right.
It's not his place to say what devs can or can not use to make their products. Obviously he is lying about touch, because devs wouldn't both writing an app for the iPhone that could not use the touch screen. The app wouldn't work. Keep pushing HTML5 if that is what you want, but we all know you just want apps that can't be used on non Apple products. /2cents
Open web standards on Apple products!?!
I read the whole thing and I must say that Jobs really put flash into perspective. I've heard Adobe's hooting and hollering and for a while, I actually was on the Flash boat criticizing Apple about it. Now that Steve has pretty much told me to STFU, I must say that I am humbled by all that of which I did not know.
… and that's why he's Steve Jobs and I am not.
-M
Ok… so Adobe is close to being iHaters.
FLash is not allowed since all the free flash games and vids would hurt App Store sales and ITunes sales. There…I said it.
Notes from full article:
I love how they make a jab at Microsoft over WebKit. Not necessary but funny.
They just admitted Macs crash. STOP THE PRESSES!!! They blame Flash.
Websites aren't supporting H2.64 and it is Flash's fault even though it supporting H2.64.
We don't support rollover and it's again Flash's fault for supporting it.
The most important reason, it is multiplatform and allows another group to control our apps indirectly.
Allot of this is PR speech.
@Sandrock
To be honest, the only time I ever have had problems on my MacBook is when a flash plugin fails.
I've also only had BSOD when running NVidia on my PCs.
@smartguy
You have to give Nvidia cards time to boot. If I start a game that brings up the permission box before the card has fully booted, I blue screen. That permission box is the only thing that crashes my PC. (I'd turn it off, but I'm paranoid) Flash has never cause a crash, so I don't see why it does on Macs.
@Sandrock
Time to boot? You mean for instance if my computer had been on all day and that evening I execute a game and it crashes is because the card is asleep?
I imagine the difference between a C code and Unix is the reason Flash does that. Next time it happens I'll screen shot or cut and paste the error for you. Only happens with Safari.
@ Smartguy
That's never happened to me. Bot mostly I run Firefox or Chrome.
I had one kernel panic ever and that was totally my fault. I put the RAM in my self and hadn't secured it properly.
@N8R
It's sporadic, but it happens.
The only other issue I have with my Mac is using gov't websites. Half their buttons do not seem to animate or work with Safari.
@smartguy
Nvidia cards have two modes. (If there are any special settings three) It has a power save mode that it auto boots to, and a power mode for when you start games. (Mine has a third that boots after the power save boots. It is a setting I set on the card so that the fan stays at max. If the card tries to do anything while it is booting this mode, it crashes.) I don't leave my PC on all time, so I don't know about your PC.
@smartguy – I think google has had a lot of success developing free apps for iphone using HTML 5. I mean, if an app is free, apple doesn't get any money from it anyway. So why would they care about a free web app?
I think the bigger issue here, which you touched on, is that whenever my mac has an issue it's almost always a flash plugin. not to mention flash is hard on the already mediocre battery life.
@shockwave
Free apps via HTML5 is a small price to pay for the already enormous amount available via flash. Not too mention, you have to buy an SDK to put something on the App store. They are still making money, and will now make more with iAds.
Let's be honest here as well, they are counting the Lite versions of these titles as free games.
@Sandrock
Haven't had a desktop in quite a few years. Primarily laptops the last 5 years. I leave my PC or Mac on during the day so I can remote in to it.
@smartguy – i'll admit the app store wouldn't be as big as it is today if flash was available for iphone, but I'm glad for it. before the app store came along a lot of developers had web games and apps and to me it was just a means to an end.
The only part of flash I wish I had was for certain web pages and I wish I could view more videos online using the iphone/ipad. But I put a lot of that blame on the websites. IGN is supposed to be the leader in tech news and they don't have an optimized iphone webpage and all of their vidoes are in flash.
ESPN on the other hand has developed a web page for iphone, optimized their web page for ipad and included quick time vids (i assume) when you're on ipad. I love it
@smartguy
I've been wanting to build a PC to do that for a while. My current PC is a power hog, so I turn it off when not in use.
Just read the whole thing. While Apple is withholding some of the reasons, I've got to say all of the points are very valid. Flash has been pointing fingers at apple ever since the iPhone launched. It's nice to see the tables turned.
@ Sandrock;
ESPN is owned by Disney, while IGN is owned by News Corp. It may just be that Disney gives ESPN more resources to develop it's proprietary outlets across a wider spectrum of hardware more than News Corp. gives IGN to do the same. Just a guess.
-M
The only valid reason they had in there was security. Even then I wounder if that is Adobe's fault. For all we know it is an Apple problem they refuse to fix.
I feel like there were some valid points in there, but I think it is a little hypocritical for Apple to say that someone else is a closed system. Who is it that doesn't allow their apps to be written in anything other than C or C+ for their native code? Apple. They want everyone to follow their standards only, and those standards are capable of use on Apple products only is how it seems that they want everything to go. I don't consider that to be an open system. Also, who is it that lets developers know what their requirements are for apps that are developed for use on their products? Not Apple. They seem to restrict everyone who buys their products or develops for their products, and we all buy in to it.
I don't :)
@All
Just another interesting perspective http://www.gofanboy.com/go-fanboy-news/2575-fanbo…