Loading ...There is a huge uproar about Apple’s iPad not supporting Adobe Flash. Why this is such a shock, I don’t know. But tension between the two companies is rising since the release of the Apple iPad.
Apple’s argument is simple. They don’t allow Flash to run on iPhones or iPads because it is too likely to crash. Anyone who has attempted to watch a Flash-operated video or play a Flash-operated game knows how often it crashes and how frustrating it is. So why would Apple allow such a faulty program to operate on their system when they pride themselves on flawlessness and risk angering their consumers?
This is not new to long-time Apple users. We’ve been living pretty happily without Flash and its potential to crash for years. Especially since Apple products, like the iPhone and now the iPad too, support HTML5, so we don’t necessarily need Flash.
Adobe, to me, seems to simply be mad that they were rejected by Apple in favor of a competitor who could live up to Apple’s expectations (HTML5). Yeah, a ton of online video content requires Flash, but HTML5 runs better than Flash and with fewer crashes (and if it does crash, it doesn’t take the whole browser with it), which saves Apple consumers from a lot of frustration and is why Apple chose to run it over Flash.
Makes sense, right? It’s just a bit of healthy competition. And Adobe is really, really mad about it. It’ll be interesting to see if Adobe can step up and exterminate its bugs. That’s the only way Steve Jobs will allow it to run on Apple’s products.
10 Comments for Apple’s preference over Flash angers Adobe
Dan, Washington, DC | February 4, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Ward George | February 4, 2010 at 6:47 pm
Of course, Apple’s lack of support for existing web standards like Flash has nothing to do with Apple’s enormous investment in the H.264 video codec, a codec that competes with the Flash codecs that deliver about 75% of the video on the web today. And nothing to do with the fact that only Safari and Chrome have built-in support for H.264 under HTML5. Any other browsers that want to build in support for H.264 will have to license the codec. This will leave the most innovative browser out there in the dark, Firefox. Another blow to OpenSource.
It sounds a lot more like Steve Jobs is taking a page out of Microsoft’s and Google’s playbook and trying to dictate the direction of the web for Apple’s own profit. I’ve been an Apple fan for 30 years, but what’s been coming out of Cupertino lately seems more like hubris than innovation.
Jake | February 4, 2010 at 7:35 pm
Wow, I can’t even call this an article, it’s so biased and full of false information. Flash has been around for 15 years and has been running solidly on Mac and PC operating systems for the entire time. Suddenly Steve Jobs says its buggy you purport this as common knowledge?
But that’s not even the worst part of this piece. You say HTML5 performs better, but no browser supports enough of HTML5 to be an actual competitor to Flash’s capabilities…unless you think that Flash is simply a video player. Nevermind cross-browser compatibility. Nevermind that HTML5 just barely has a DRAFT from W3C. Nevermind that no part of it has been mass-tested. Bad journalism.
Piet Snot | February 6, 2010 at 9:53 am
I agree with the above 2 posters… HTML5 one of its 2 editors is Apple. Apple wants to keep 100% control of machines they SOLD (i.o.w. changed ownership). Pushing their closed source proprietary software and codecs… Apple has indeed learned something from Microsoft. (but it isn’t “think different”).
Piet Snot | February 6, 2010 at 7:11 pm
Forgot to add, on windows at least (I only use Mac at work) Flash is rock solid….
@Nick
Windows is somwhere between 100 and 150 for aprox. 3 PCs, based on the amount of support you want. That alot cheaper then OS X ! (Don’t forget you pay for OS X when you buy the hardware…)
I do agree that OS X is way better then any windows version until windows 7. The only thing I miss in OS X is the right mouse button. (It’s kinda slow to go to the top menu for everything). Also I miss multiple windows in the same application on the application bar, but there could be a trick for that. Please educate me, if so…
Brian | February 7, 2010 at 7:50 am
@Piet: Are you serious? Macs have had a “right mouse button” for years! It’s just touch placement sensitive (MightyMouse and MagicMouse). As for the touchpads on the macbooks, simply enable right clicking in Preferences. 
@Jake: Do a little more research… Flash has most definitely NOT been running solid since its inception (including the adoption of SmartSketch [aka FutureSplash])! It has “always” had issues and has very quickly become a HUGE memory hog. It’s been said since day one! Macromedia “almost” had it right but since the migration to Adobe it has gotten much, much worse. And the statistics that claim the huge popularity and percentage of content that Flash assumes on the web is entirely skewed, that much is obvious.
Piet Snot | February 7, 2010 at 5:40 pm
@Brian,
Use a 27 inch iMac at work, and it has this:
mouse. Clicking the right side doesn’t do anything on my Mac. Do educate me (cause if I can get it to work, I will immediately buy one form my Win7 laptop… it’s a great mouse (love the ball).
PS
Very strange that authors comment, and then remove their comments later…
Tony | February 10, 2010 at 7:53 am
I agree with a number of the replies above. My apologies to the author, if I’m being too offensive, but I must say that this article is very poorly written, and it’s clear that she is writing from her limited personal experience and has not done any of the appropriate research to write a truly informative or insightful composition.
I’ve always been impressed with many of Apple’s products (since the Apple II) and I love the iPhone. Their hardware is usually second to none. It took me some time to accept that a Flash player would never come to the iPhone, but it’s definitely conceivable that the player might not function as well as we’d like it to.
As others have stated, comments like “Anyone who has attempted to watch a Flash-operated video or play a Flash-operated game knows how often it crashes and how frustrating it is,” make it clear that the the author has never attempted to experience Flash on a Windows platform, or performed any other kind of research. I’m not saying Windows is a better OS by any stretch. Mac OS X is wonderful. There’s also a lot being said about Apple has refused to give Adobe the proper API’s that would allow Flash to use Hardware Acceleration on the MAC, leaving Adobe no choice but to use the much poorer performing alternative, software accelleration. I’m not sure if this is true, but if it is, that’s a huge problem right there. If someone can confirm this, that would be great.
As for HTML5, as others have stated, it has a long way to go. There’s more fluff, excitement, and anticipation about it than there was for the iPad, and in just the same way, it won’t meet all the expectations. More importantly, the plan is for it to leverage H.264 for video encoding. That means big dollars for Steve Jobs since the patent is owned by a pool that includes Apple.
“Healthy competition”? Perhaps. But this is exactly what Steve Jobs has been doing since the 80’s and is why his products that have the potential to be far superior than any other never get the market share they could (with the exception of the iPhone).
If it wasn’t for switching to Intel processors to allow for dual booting of Windows, iMacs and MacBooks would not be selling as well as they have been since. Buyers don’t have to feel like they have to give up anything Steve doesn’t allow, but probably should.
If anything, I feel those who use Macs exclusively are trying their damndest to rid the world of Flash because they’re tired of missing out and hoping that Jobs’ muscle will fix things for them, when really all he has to do is work with them, just like everyone else has.
And for the small percentage of the market that still doesn’t want Flash… Why couldn’t you have an option in the settings of your iPad to turn Flash on/off if you don’t want it, just like you can for Bluetooth or 3G?
Tony | February 10, 2010 at 7:58 am
Correction to post above…
The one sentence should read:
“Buyers don’t have to feel like they have to give up anything Steve doesn’t allow, but probably should allow.”
Eryk | February 11, 2010 at 9:51 am
“Anyone who has attempted to watch a Flash-operated video or play a Flash-operated game knows how often it crashes and how frustrating it is.”
I’m not sure what kind of computers you’re using, but I’ve been watching Hulu on my iMac nearly every day since it was in beta and have never once, not once, had it crash. My wife plays flash games all the time and she has never complained about the experience. I get the feeling you’re basing your argument on what Apple has told you, and not your own experiences.
If you think this is about Flash being buggy or unstable, you’ve clearly got a soft spot for Apple. It’s about selling movies, music, TV shows, and games on the app store and iTunes. Content that can all be obtained FOR FREE through websites that are predominantly Flash-based. Heck, Adobe even has an iPhone packager so that people who write Flash games and other Flash content can export their work into a native iPhone application.
Apple’s choice to not include Flash isn’t healthy competition, it’s anti-competition.
One other huge issue: Flash can update it’s own applets – and do so without control from Apple. That means that many of the programs in the App Store could easily be ported to Flash and bypass the control and revenue stream that Apple has established. The technical issues are a convenient (and valid) excuse and Apple has a vested interest in keeping the user experience free from trouble, but the real motivating factor here is to drive revenue. If Adobe agreed to limit how Flash works to preserve Apple’s revenue stream, this would go away nearly instantly.