In an open letter from Steve Jobs, the Apple CEO laid out the reasons why Apple has chosen not to support Flash on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. The letter is lengthy, frank, and crystal clear as to why Apple is not too keen on Adobe Flash.
Jobs does not only lay out the reasons why he feels Flash is not good for Apple devices but for mobile devices in general. He sums up his thoughts on Adobe Flash in 6 clear and concise points, which we have outlined for you below.
Its Closed:
“Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc.”
The full web:
“Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads.”
Reliability, security, and performance:
“Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash.”
Battery life :
“Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained.”
Touch:
“Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers.”
The most important reason:
“Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe’s goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps. And Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple’s platforms.”
In his conclusion, Jobs summed up his lengthy letter by simply stating that Flash is meant for PCs rather than mobile devices. It is the fact that Flash is weak on both low powered and touch based apps that he makes this conclusion.
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