Steve Jobs demonstrating the iPhone: yet another Apple product that doesn't use Flash. (Photo: Flickr)
Steve Jobs says Abode Flash and Apple products like the iPod, iPhone and iPad will never be seen together, according to Fox News. Many tech fans had wondered if Jobs would eventually cave to the pressure, as Flash videos are still widely used on many websites. However, Steve Jobs’ “Thoughts on Flash” letter should mean less cash today for Adobe, as the Apple CEO gives six well-reasoned arguments for why Flash video won’t mix with the iCrowd. Jobs has serious philosophical and technical concerns about Adobe Flash, chief among them the fact that Flash videos frequently cause OS crashes.
Steve Jobs Flash call draws Adobe’s ire
Fox News reports that Adobe Flash evangelist Lee Brimelow didn’t mince words regarding Steve Jobs and his Flash stance: “Speaking purely for myself, I would like to make it clear what is going through my mind at the moment. Go screw yourself, Apple.”
Apple didn’t feel it was necessary to respond to such a well-constructed missive. Jobs is more interested in pointing out that Flash is proprietary product, and that he is against closed products that “stifle innovation.” He is more in favor of HTML5 as an open standards platform. That most Apple products are also proprietary didn’t seem to enter into Jobs’ argument, but he was just getting started. He continued by reminding readers that Flash is an old technology that could be replaced with “more modern formats” like H.264 that don’t cause as many crashes.
Flash, Flash, crash
What’s the real problem here? Steve Jobs explains that Flash tends to get in the way. As he states in his “Thoughts on Flash,”
“We know from painful experience that letting a third-party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.”
How did Adobe feel about being called a balding third wheel? Aside from such eloquent statements as Brimelow’s, all is quiet on the Adobe front. There is a definite sense among the media that Flash is dying as a platform, something that most developers would second – and then some. Lance Ulanoff of PC Magazine called the Steve Jobs Flash bash “an incredible attack on Flash, (one that) could shake its very foundations.”
(Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sour_patch/ / CC BY-SA 2.0)
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