Steve Jobs thoughts on not supporting flash – they just aren’t justification!

There has been a lot made of Apple products not supporting flash and many people getting frustrated with iPhones, iPads etc for not supporting flash. So it was good to see a post by Steve Jobs on his thoughts and reasons why Apple do not support Flash…However, when reading it, let’s say I didn’t read any real reason why Flash isn’t supported…

You can read his full article here http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

So where to start? Ok, well Steve talks in points, so I will follow and give my own thoughts on this…

First, there’s “Open”

Steve talks about proprietary software, and puts forward a kind of weird argument that everything on the web should be open source. This is rubbish. What I say is without proprietary software and hardware, there wouldn’t be anything out there for developers to develop software with, not to mention how would the economics of the IT market sector function – if everything was open source…Well they wouldn’t…So I always hate this argument and these kinds of statements. (I also get a vision of developers basically living off of other people’s capabilities). In addition I find this weird as Apple has masses of proprietary software and hardware, and yet doesn’t see this as a little contradictory. Apple after all are trying to sue HTC for copying their hardware…Hardly the kind of “Open” form of thinking is it…Sorry, also mentioning Webkit open technology within browsers doesn’t mean you embrace open source. Rather it demonstrates that you have used open source to get your fingers into more pies…

There is nothing wrong with Adobe controlling where its own product goes. Proprietary software goes through iterations a hell of a lot quicker than open source, in addition I would say that most of the time it is far less buggy and secure (ok secure and Adobe at the moment don’t go that well together, but you get my point). I have to be honest, but I don’t think this “Open” argument has anything to do with Flash not being supported on apple products, rather it is a ramble at trying to attract the “Open source is great” crowds out there and looking for additional excuses to why flash isn’t supported. So as far as this justification goes, sorry Steve I don’t buy it….

Second, there’s the “full web”

Ok, now we are getting into video and a little into games. Steve breaks this down into video and games. So, first off, yeap, video content in Flash could be using a more modern format, H.264, however, many places on the web they aren’t. Saying that you could play video if websites used more modern formats isn’t really a great argument for me. The fact is the websites aren’t, they work fine on the Mac and PC so why not on iPads, iPhones etc? Sorry again this is a poor justification. I recently posted my own wedding video on a couple of sites, Facebook being one of those that Steve mentions, and guess what, no one who had an iPhone could view the video, great….Sorry there is no justification here that I see for not supporting Flash.

We now move onto games. Yeap iPhones cannot play Flash games, well that’s obvious since Flash isn’t supported. Again by stating that you can access over 50,000 games on the App Store is not a justification for not supporting flash. This is rather a, “ok, you want games, we have 50,000 here” statement.

So far this is 2 justifications mentioned and neither one is valid….

Third, there’s reliability; security and performance

Now Steve is finally providing some real justification. Symantec did highlight Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009, and this is one of the reasons why so many corporations don’t allow flash to be installed on their PCs. What makes me laugh is that I wonder how many people actually (I mean day to day end users outside of the world of IT) know Adobes record on security. I am sure people only think Microsoft based products have a bad security history…hmmm. Weird how press and perceptions can be wrong isn’t it…

Apparently Flash is the number one reason why Macs crash, weird, I keep on hearing that they never crash…hmmm Sorry that is a dig outside of the scope of this post, none the less this is a valid justification for not supporting something on an iPhone, iPad and iPod. PCs suffer too at the hands of Adobe software, and we are not just talking crashing, rather performance issues etc etc.

Steve then talks about Flash not performing well on mobile devices. Again, this is a valid point, I have never seen it perform well on anything other than a high spec PC and I am well aware that their mobile support etc has been slipping ¼ by ¼ However, it will and should be available…

I also have to state that, is the iPad really a mobile device? I have seen Archos mobile devices (very similar to the iPad) that basically run Windows 7. That means I can get Flash, Silverlight and anything else on there I want, surely this is just a failing of the iPad?

So far, that makes two invalid points made, and 1 valid point made.

Fourth, there’s battery life

Ok, when I read this title I did laugh. Every person I know who has or has ever owned an iPhone says the battery life is shocking, and that’s without running flash on it. Steve states that the iPhone will play H.264 for 10 hours and yet only 5 hours if playing a video through Flash. I can see his point here, however, the battery life is so poor on the device in the first place that the owners re-charge every 10 hours in any case.  So though this has some good points, and yeap could be argued for a reason not to support Flash, I have to say I don’t see it as a real reason…

So, in Steve’s 4 reasons why they don’t support Flash, just 1 of them are actually valid reasons….Two more to go…

Fifth, there’s Touch

OK, now this read to me more of a marketing bit about iPhone touch etc. So what if Flash uses “rollovers” I can still click on that icon and it will trigger the rollover. By saying because a device is “Touch” it won’t trigger rollovers is rubbish. What makes me laugh in this statement, is that Steve then talks about more modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript (though the last two are not modern at all) and yet forgets that most of these websites that use these will use rollovers and effects to hide and show layers….

The statement that most Flash websites would need to be re-written to support touch-based devices is simply rubbish. I have used Flash websites on a touch screen and all works ok…

Sorry, this is a disgrace of a reason…Thats 5 points made, just 1 valid…

Sixth, the most important reason

This is the main reason why Apple will not support Flash, and the complete post by Steve could have been just this single post (if it was, I would have a lot more respect for the post in general – though it isn’t a valid reason). Basically, Apple doesn’t want to provide freedom of how you develop games and applications for the iPhone, iPad and iPod. They want all software to run through their proprietary SDK (and I can see why this is good, and why it is bad).

There are some good points made here, and some bad. Sorry, I don’t believe that by allowing a developer to develop on a third party platform that sits on-top of the device OS leads to sub-standard apps. This is just not true. You don’t develop for a PC using the actual Windows OS directly. This is just a bad statement again, think .NET, think Java, these are the main two platforms for all software development….

The statement that “we cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers” is again rubbish. If Adobe was slow to adopt these, then developers, who choose not to develop in Flash, simply would be ahead of those who do. This would mean their apps are the ones that get downloaded and developers would soon move away from Flash. So this is just rubbish again.

Steve takes his point further stating that it is worse if the third party provides cross platform developer tools. Why is it worse? Well don’t read Steve’s reasons. The reason (and this is the reason why Apple don’t want to support Flash) is that a developer can develop an app once and have it available on multiple devices, not just the iPhone etc. Which means that end users who may choose the iPhone for some of its cool apps, may not choose an iPhone because the same cool apps are available on other devices…This is Apple trying to lock people into the iPhone with the power of their massive AppStore, nothing more…And this is why they don’t want to support Flash….

Conclusions…

Steve’s conclusion is nothing more than a dig at Adobe. My own conclusions are that Flash is an outdated technology, with serious security and performance issues (this is why I am a strong fan of Silverlight). However, it is a technology that will be around for a long time to come, and that means that it should be available on mobile devices. It is also cross platform, and that is very good (though not for Apple). Sure security and performance are issues, but they aren’t reason enough to not support Flash when they already support Flash on the Mac. If Adobe can address their security problems, then I see no reason why not to support Flash…

 I also have to say that this great HTML5 era will not happen as Steve sees it. There are still so many problems with HTML 4 and cross platform / browser issues that HTML 5 will not address, only inherit.

In Steve’s entire post, I only read a single valid point for choosing not to support Flash. The rest (with the exception of the last) are basic “excuses” or are simply wrong. The last point in his post though, I feel shows the real reason Flash will not be supported, and that is because it gives the user more choice of mobile device…Simple….

At the moment Apple are trying to lock the Mobile device market sector up, and one of the real reasons this may be possible is because of the AppStore. The AppStore ensures apps are developed using their proprietary SDK for their proprietary OS and proprietary hardware, which means that to have the same application running on Android or Windows mobile, the developer has to re-develop from scratch (well almost). While the iPhone has such a good market showing, this approach will continue to work. However, what of the future? With many more users discovering HTC type phones, phones running Android and soon phones running the much anticipated Windows Mobile 7, will this last? (I don’t think it will looking at sales figures etc for the HTC Touch HD2 for example)

As a developer I feel the only “Open” area that should be in place is being open enough to have your devices run a multitude of development platforms, be it Flash, proprietary SDK or Silverlight. I think Windows mobile 7 approach by adopting Silverlight as the development platform will help Windows based phones grab more of the mobile market place, and if anything move ahead of the iPhone. Windows Mobile 7 allows users real choice on how they access the web and content, as Silverlight will run on their browser, out of their browser, on a Mac, on a PC oh, and on their phone…

For me, the Apple position is one of trying to create a monopoly on smart phones, not one for the good of users, no matter what Steve Jobs and Apple claim….After reading his post, I hope it backfires to be honest…