In his recent letter Thoughts on Flash Steve Jobs attempts to explain why Apple does not and will not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Jobs provides the following six reasons:
- Openness – Flash is proprietary; web standards such as HTML5, CSS and JavaScript which the iPhones, iPods and iPads use are open.
- ‘Full Web’ myth – The Flash that is primarily used on the Web is also available in a more current H.264 format that does play IPhones, iPods and iPads. Furthermore with Youtube, Neflix, ABC, NBC, CNN, Fox and many other media publishers iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing out.
- Reliability, security and performance – Jobs states: “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 – Twice the life with H.264 videos which play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours.
- Touch format – Flash is made for a mouse-driven PC, and not Apple’s touch-based interface.
- Substandard development – Third-party developers are primarily interested in their own needs and not the needs the entire platform. Jobs states: “For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X.”
Perhaps Jobs’ concluding statement sums up his argument best:
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.
Apple can never be accused of falling short in looking to the future and were one of the first companies to move away from Floppy drives and to other mass media formats so their record is consistent. Furthermore, Apple has always put the user experience first and controlling that experience is extremely important. They have been able to charge a premium for that user experience and anything that detracts from that experience lessens their unique selling proposition.
While I can appreciate some aspects of Adobe’s argument and would question Apple’s openness I tend to agree with Jobs that the most advanced and innovative platform is what we need to create the best apps. Ultimately we want technology to get so good it goes away and simply allows the user to do what they need or want to do. Mobile devices like the iPhone, iPod and iPad are getting us much closer to this state of technological development and if we need to leave Flash or any other technology behind in order to advance, then that is what we need to do.
