Support for Adobe’s Flash is key to any competitor’s attempt to outshine the iPhone user experience and is, of course, one of the key Web technologies that Apple continues to spurn — even on the iPad.
This epitomizes Apple’s Achilles’ heel: the belief that its own walled garden is so superior that users and developers will do without functionality available to others on the Web. Some of this attitude has come from carrier partners, eager to protect their own revenue streams and control the already burdensome impact of iPhone data on their net-works.
The blocking and barring of VoIP, placeshifting and Flash video at various points in the iPhone’s history can usually be traced back to that. And in the face of the row over Google Voice — which got as far as a US antitrust probe — Apple has this week climbed down partially, opening up to the service.
But Flash is a thornier problem. Among various criticisms of the iPad, one of the loudest is the spurning of Flash, even on a gadget promoted as being video optimized. Apple has argued that the mobile version of Flash is inadequate for the advanced multimedia usage encouraged by its iPhone, but this viewpoint has been undermined by the appearance of Flash 10, a mobile implementation of the fully fledged platform. Now it has shifted its objections, saying that Flash will be made redundant by the better capabilities of the coming HTML 5 standard. Google would agree with that, but not for a few years to come, given the massive entrenched base of Flash.
Apple has not officially ruled out Flash support, but Adobe and its supporters were increasingly vocal over the weekend about being left in the cold. Writing on the Adobe Flash Platform Blog, marketing group manager Adrian Ludwig said: "There’s something important missing from Apple’s approach to connecting consumers to content. Without Flash support, iPad users will not be able to access the full range of Web content, including over 70% of games and 75% of video on the Web. If I want to use the iPad to connect to Disney, Hulu, Miniclip, Farmville, ESPN, Kongregate or JibJab — not to mention the millions of other sites on the Web — I’ll be out of luck."
Developers can only get around the Flash stand-off by creating and exporting iPhone, iPod Touch and now iPad apps via the Flash Professional CS5 programming tool, which leverages the same source code used to deliver applications across desktops and devices.
This story originally appeared in Wireless Watch. For a full look at its take on Flash and Android, email paperboy@riderresearch.com and ask for Issue 339. |
