Flash to die at iPhones hands
According to Steve Jobs, the rumors about the iPhone being ready for Flash were overly optimistic. Indeed, the Jobs says Flash is designed for big machines and it is far too slow on the iPhone. He points at a missing middle product.
And as we’ve seen before, Apple loves presenting solutions for the opportunities it sees. I think it is quite telling that the most revealing comments on iPhone’s Flash shortcomings come just days before the iParty tomorrow. Interesting indeed.
So, that leaves us staring at Adobe. What does this mean for all those Flash sites? We know mobile internet usage is dominated by the iPhone. To remain relevant, will these sites convert to whatever Apple has up their magical sleeves? What does that mean for Adobe? Even with some kind of announcement tomorrow, these questions can only be answered with time.
“No one aside from [Apple Chief Executive] Steve Jobs has any idea if or when it’s coming,” Ryan Stewart, Adobe’s chief spokesman for its Internet-based applications, wrote on his blog last month. “Everyone I talk to doesn’t know anything.” A bit nervous about being in the dark, are we?
Read: [CNNMoney]
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To top it off, design schools already use the iPhone/touch as one of the platforms necessary for designing web sites. So the young designers are learning to avoid the non-transferable formats in their designs. Flash will do well for a few more years, but it will go the way of Active X and the other non-universal tools, unless they find a way to make it leaner and meaner. Well, friendlier actually.
on March 5, 2008 at 05:40 PM - LINKGood point imajoebob, new sites are coming online to be friendly to the iphone/touch. I think you are spot on that Flash will die a slow death if it can’t evolve. Thanks for the thoughts.
on March 5, 2008 at 05:46 PM - LINKSafari 3.1 uses WebKit 3.0.
WebKit 3.0 is HTML5 compliant, and includes SVG support and native AAC/MP4 and AVC/h.264.
HTML5 also supports client-side SQL storage (think “Google Gears")
HTML5 makes proprietary solutions like Flash, Silverlight, and JavaFX redundant.
Apple isn’t killing Flash, SVG+h.264+SQL is.
http://counternotions.com/2007/11/15/apple-runtime-answer-2/
on March 5, 2008 at 08:08 PM - LINKGerald, fantastic link. I am going to disagree that it is not Apple, though I get your point.
Take the iPhone out of the picture and there is no huge problem with Flash. As imajoebob and I have pointed out, current sites and new sites are moving away thanks to Apple. Developers need a reason to change and the iPhone I’d that reason.
on March 5, 2008 at 08:35 PM - LINKJobs is a moron.
on March 5, 2008 at 08:36 PM - LINKFunny how Apple is held to a higher standard, since no other smart phone can run Flash, much less the real internet. And, forget Flash Lite, it’s not really Flash at all, because it can’t run the normal version of Flash developed for websites.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/03/05/steve_jobs_pans_flash_on_the_iphone.html
on March 6, 2008 at 02:29 AM - LINK