Apple’s mobile products may be popular. But many users get frustrated by their lack of Flash animation and video functionality, which is ubiquitous in the rest of the technological world. In an open letter posted on Apple’s Web site, company CEO, chair, and founder Steve Jobs explains the six reasons behind Flash’s absence from the iPad and other products. And in a blog on Adobe’s Web site, Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch responded to the criticism.

Article Tools

• 

First, Jobs counters Adobe’s claim that Flash is an “open” system and calls it “100% proprietary.” While he notes that the operating system for the iPhone, iPod, and iPad also is proprietary, he asserts Apple’s belief that all standards pertaining to the Web should be open. That’s why Apple has adopted the HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript open standards, he says. He cites Apple’s own history of creating open standards for the Web as well

Second, he refutes Adobe’s claim that Apple’s devices can’t access “the full Web” because 75% of Web video is in Flash. Jobs says that “almost all of this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264,” and viewable on Apple devices. And while he concedes that these products can’t play Flash games, “there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free.”

Third, Jobs criticizes Adobe’s “reliability, security and performance.” According to Symantec, he says, Flash had “one of the worst security records in 2009.” He also says that Flash “is the number one reasons Macs crash,” even though Apple has been working with Adobe to fix these problems. He further says that Flash “has not performed well on mobile devices.”

Fourth, Jobs expressed his concerns for battery life. Mobile devices save power by decoding video in hardware instead of software, he says, relying on the industry-standard H.264 decoder. While Flash recently added support for H.264, Jobs says, “the video on almost all Flash Web sites currently requires an older-generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking.”

Fifth, Jobs heralds the superiority of touch interfaces. While Flash was designed for PCs using mice and rollovers, Apple’s devices don’t use either. “Most Flash Web sites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash Web sites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?” Jobs asks, adding that most Flash sites would need to be rewritten to accommodate touch-based devices if Apple’s products did run Flash.

Finally, Jobs notes the complications that third-party layers of software can yield, explaining that “letting a third-party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the advancement and progress of the platform.” Developers who depend on third-party libraries and tools only will be able to use platform improvements “if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features,” stifling innovation.

Continue to next page.