Tuesday
May042010
Apple's Response to the backlash over its Flash Decision
Tuesday, May 4, 2010 at 4:38AM
Apple’s announcement a few weeks ago that they would not support Adobe’s Flash technologies on the iTouch, iPhone, or iPad sent shockwaves throughout the mobile device marketplace. So much so, that Steve Job’s posted a note on the Apple website on April 29th.
In the note, Jobs lays out the background on the relationship that Apple and Adobe have had over the years, and the relationship that they still have, albeit limited.
In his note, Jobs discussed six main points as it relates to the Flash controversy.
He refutes Adobe’s claim that they are 100% open as it relates to the Flash technology. His main assertion is that since Adobe controls 100% of the pricing, distribution, and coding of the Flash suite, therefore Flash technology is really a closed solution and not open as Adobe claims it to be.
Job’s other points are:
Jobs raises some good points in his response to Adobe and critics of Apple’s decision to not support Flash. From a technology perspective I believe it largely due to the fact that Apple is masterful in terms of controlling the end user experience on the hardware and software platforms they produce. This provides a consistent look at feel and experience, which more and more people are coming to understand and embrace. Some complain this comes at a higher cost than a PC, which is mostly true, but the gap is narrowing. From a business and financial standpoint, Jobs has done a fantastic job of saving Apple for a near death experience several years ago. Apple has consistently been beating analysts expectations over the last several quarters which is reflected in their current stock price. This makes stockholders very happy as well.
It will be interesting to see what sort of impact that this decision will have on the portable, or hand-held device market. Flash is a large part of Adobe’s business, so I don’t seem them abandoning the technology in the short term. What will be interesting is to see if Adobe begins to change their long term strategy as it relates to Flash and to see if they begin support some of the so called open technologies like H.264, CSS, and HTML5. The allure that developers have with using Flash is that Adobe makes it easy to develop code and solutions with Flash.
Apple has clearly been doing a lot right up to this point. With millions of iPhones sold over the last several years and have a new iPhone on the horizon, that segment of their business continues to be strong. Now with 1 Million iPads sold in 3 weeks and suppliers having a hard time keeping up with demand, the iPad looks to be a hit as well. It will be interesting to see what impact this decision may have on Apple in the future and if they may have to retreat from this decision should Flash not show any signs of going away.
You can see the entire text of Steve Job’s post by navigating to the Apple website.
In the note, Jobs lays out the background on the relationship that Apple and Adobe have had over the years, and the relationship that they still have, albeit limited.
In his note, Jobs discussed six main points as it relates to the Flash controversy.
He refutes Adobe’s claim that they are 100% open as it relates to the Flash technology. His main assertion is that since Adobe controls 100% of the pricing, distribution, and coding of the Flash suite, therefore Flash technology is really a closed solution and not open as Adobe claims it to be.
Job’s other points are:
- Instead of using Flash, Apple is choosing to use HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript as the technologies used on its devices.
- Adobe has claimed that Apple devices are not able to experience the “full web”. Jobs goes on to say that the newer standard for web based video is, H.264, which Apple fully supports on their devices. He goes on to list a handful major web sites of new organizations that support the H.264 encoding format.
- Reliability, security and performance are called out as it relates to Apple’s decision to not support Flash. Jobs claims he has asked Adobe several times to show a mobile device where Flash is stable and not causing issue with the mobile device. He claims he has never been shown such a device by Adobe.
- Battery Life is mentioned as another reason that Flash is not supported on Apple’s mobile and handheld devices.
- Flash was developed for PCs and therefore does not support the newer multi-touch screens found on Apple’s mobile devices. Flash provides additional functionality when a user hovers their mouse pointer over content through the use of pop-ups. This sort of functionality is not support on Touch devices.
- 3rd party software between the platform and the developer
- Flash was created and became popular during the “PC Era” of computing and is not a relevant technology for mobile devices.
- Jobs claims that he has learned from past experiences that when you permit a 3rd party developer to get between the hardware platform and the developer, that instability and compatibility issues become pervasive. This has been Apple’s stance for quite sometime and some argue the secret sauce driving their success over the last several years.
Jobs raises some good points in his response to Adobe and critics of Apple’s decision to not support Flash. From a technology perspective I believe it largely due to the fact that Apple is masterful in terms of controlling the end user experience on the hardware and software platforms they produce. This provides a consistent look at feel and experience, which more and more people are coming to understand and embrace. Some complain this comes at a higher cost than a PC, which is mostly true, but the gap is narrowing. From a business and financial standpoint, Jobs has done a fantastic job of saving Apple for a near death experience several years ago. Apple has consistently been beating analysts expectations over the last several quarters which is reflected in their current stock price. This makes stockholders very happy as well.
It will be interesting to see what sort of impact that this decision will have on the portable, or hand-held device market. Flash is a large part of Adobe’s business, so I don’t seem them abandoning the technology in the short term. What will be interesting is to see if Adobe begins to change their long term strategy as it relates to Flash and to see if they begin support some of the so called open technologies like H.264, CSS, and HTML5. The allure that developers have with using Flash is that Adobe makes it easy to develop code and solutions with Flash.
Apple has clearly been doing a lot right up to this point. With millions of iPhones sold over the last several years and have a new iPhone on the horizon, that segment of their business continues to be strong. Now with 1 Million iPads sold in 3 weeks and suppliers having a hard time keeping up with demand, the iPad looks to be a hit as well. It will be interesting to see what impact this decision may have on Apple in the future and if they may have to retreat from this decision should Flash not show any signs of going away.
You can see the entire text of Steve Job’s post by navigating to the Apple website.
Reader Comments (2)
I think Apple's decision not to support Flash is sound strategically. It's not easy to run on hand held devices and it sucks the power right out of them. Apple aims to make easy to use products that don't require a nerd using them to think about power consumption. Ultimately Flash will lose the battle to HTML 5 so while it may mean that an iPhone user or two switch to a phone that can handle Hulu, Apple is probably making the right decision.
I don't think it holds any water, but have you seen the rumblings that the DoJ is considering whether it might be non-competitive to refuse to allow flash applications in to the app store?
I had heard about this rumbling. I agree with your assertion that this will be a difficult case for the DoJ to actually pursue. Now I am going to have to watch this, especially from a legal perspective. I have always said that I would have gone into law if I had not gotten into IT.