iPhone Still Has No Flash
News Commentary. Adobe and Apple are collaborating on Flash for the iPhone. Yeah, if pigs can fly. |
According to Bloomberg, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen explained about Flash on the iPhone: "It's a hard technical challenge, and that's part of the reason Apple and Adobe are collaborating. The ball is in our court. The onus is on us to deliver."
John Gruber is right. Collaboration "could mean anything." Apple Insider and TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) took the statement at seemingly face value. I don't. Flash on the iPhone isn't a "technical challenge." It's an Apple-imposed challenge, I say.
In late September and early October, numerous blogs and news sites erroneously reported that Adobe had Flash ready for the iPhone, based on comments made by Paul Betlem, Adobe's director of engineering, during last year's Flash on the Beach conference. Adobe evangelist Serge Jespers fully quoted Paul's statement:
Adobe is committed to bringing Flash Player to the iPhone. While the development work has begun, we can't share more details at this point. It is important to note that we do need to work with Apple beyond what is available through the SDK, its emulation environment and the current license around it to bring the full capabilities of Flash to the iPhone. We think Flash availability on the iPhone benefits the millions of joint Apple and Adobe customers, and we want to work with Apple to bring these capabilities to the device.
Flash clearly wasn't ready for the iPhone and really was going nowhere without there being "work with Apple." Now Shantanu says that Apple is working with Adobe—or does he? That's not really how I read the statement because I'm convinced that Apple really doesn't want real Flash on the iPhone.
As I explained in October, Flash on the iPhone presents problems for Apple. With the iPhone and iPod, App Store is the makings of a next-generation computing platform. Flash already is a development platform and potential rival to App Store. If Apple lets Flash come to the iPhone unfettered, developers would have another place for developing applications. Apple would lose control of the iPhone, and iPod Touch, as a mobile platform.
How many App Store applications are there? More than 15,000? How is it Flash is such a "technical challenge" when other developers can get there?
- The number of available App Store applications strongly suggests the task of porting Flash shouldn't have to be arduous.
- The iPhone runs a version of Mac OS X; a Flash version has long been available for the desktop OS.
- Flash Lite already is available for some other mobile operating systems.
What makes sense is that Flash on the iPhone is a "hard technical challenge" because Apple doesn't want a version that could provide developers with a platform alternative to App Store. Shantanu said that "the ball is in our court. The onus is on us to deliver." To deliver what? A Flash Lite for iPhone, something that plays back content but without the full platform development capabilities. Or so I say.
Sure, I don't know for certain. I'm not privy to Adobe-Apple discussions. But you tell me, what makes more sense? Please answer in comments or by e-mail.
[Please send your tips or rumors to watchtips at live.com].
Comments (17)
The longer we wait for Flash on the iPhone, the less it matters. Apple knows that of course. Rich web experiences on the iPhone = dedicated applications (think Google, eBay, Twitter clients).
Posted by Robert Sharl | February 2, 2009 4:52 AM
Flash in iPhone is a "Hard Technical Challenge" because even though Flash runs on Mac Os X it is a very memory intensive application. And considering that Safari already has memory usage problems (frequent crashing) adding Flash to the phone will make Safari less stable, which is clearly not what we or Apple want. Until they can get an actual, working, stable Flash Platform on the iPhone, it is best if it is not released. Remember MobileMe?
Posted by iPhone User | February 2, 2009 7:17 AM
I must not come across much Flash content. I don't have the plug-in installed, but I believe the only content I'm missing is some fancy intro page.
Can someone please provide some examples of how my web browsing on the iPhone would be improved if it had Flash support?
Posted by Chip | February 2, 2009 9:53 AM
Chip: how about hulu.com?
Posted by Hugh Johnson | February 2, 2009 12:50 PM
Apple has made a flat statement: "no other runtime environments are permitted". That's all anyone needs to know about it; it is not ambiguous.
Is this subject to change? Of course... Apple could change its stance. But I can't think of any reason they would.
Posted by Jim Stead | February 2, 2009 1:13 PM
Hugh: Thanks for the heads up about Hulu, which I've read about.
I could see where people would enjoy the content on an iPhone.
Posted by Chip | February 2, 2009 1:59 PM
Flash on the iPhone is a "a hard technical challenge" because Adobe (and Macromedia) has done a horrible job of making flash work in OS X. It's RAM hungry, processor intensive, and 3-10x slower than flash in Windows. This is workable on a full power processor - it's another matter on a mobile chip.
Posted by Tom Cheney | February 2, 2009 2:29 PM
Right, the tech challenge is implementing Flash so you get more than 10 minutes of battery life. Ever hear the fans on a MacBook kick in when playing a full-screen Flash game? Between CPU and memory, current Flash builds would turn your iPhone into molten slag within moments. That's the price of legacy cruft...
Chip: IMO it's better to use AJAX for some stuff that Flash would do, but Adobe AIR has become popular for people looking to easily make cross-platform content, and Flash is used on pretty much every video site out there (Vimeo, MetaCafe, Viddler, Blip.tv, the list goes on).
Many, many casual games sites use Flash.
Posted by Victor Agreda, Jr. | February 2, 2009 3:21 PM
My iPhone browsing experiences are wonderful until they are interrupted all too often by following a link ("Watch Bill reveal the secret to eternal happiness") that ends in flash video. I don't want full flash, and give a 'power warning' if you must, but let me watch that damn video!
Posted by Ted Cranmore | February 3, 2009 9:20 AM
I recall reading Steve Jobs isn't so anti-flash or protectionist about the Apple platform as he would simply not want a half-baked Flash player that plays games in the app store fine, however is too cpu intensive and battery draining for say, Hulu or google finance charts. I can't blame him. Really, the iPhone being called a "next gen computer" at THIS point in time is premature. It's a computer akin to 1993 with 128 Megs Ram. I'm really hoping the Palm Pre's new OS provides the robustness for a full flash player.
Posted by Guest | February 3, 2009 11:11 AM
Count me on the 'technical challenge' side. Although I agree there are competitive reasons for Apple to push things towards AJAX/open standards and away from Flash, I think technical challenges are a very real issue, if not THE real issue.
I've used Flash on one handheld platform, technically two if you count the two revisions: the Nokia Internet Tablets, the 770 and N800. And Flash was frankly a dog. The client was at least 1 major revision behind the desktop client at the time (and last I heard hasn't been revised, so it's now two versions behind), so not all Flash content would play. Performance was about 1/3 that of a desktop machine circa 2004-2005. And it ate battery life like someone on a binge. The N800's hardware specs were roughly comparable to the iPhone's, and from what little I've heard the Palm Pre's specs are not different enough to be significant.
Posted by Travis Butler | February 3, 2009 11:44 AM
Flash greatest weakness in "to-application".
Not better adapted to commercial products.
"alliance" may be protect.
Posted by rutile | February 3, 2009 9:07 PM
Well, almost the same with Java.
Java 5 runs on MacOS and 6 at least on Leopard (64) but nothing on iPhone or iPod Touch.
Sun may be pushing JavaFX Mobile quite heavily, but the question to Sun's JFX team about a possible iPhone port of their framework remained unanswered ;-)
Posted by CAT | February 4, 2009 4:58 AM
Apple sucks
Posted by Faa Que | February 6, 2009 10:37 AM
some of the best companies run full flash websites that are amazing and so much better than others... would they just figure it out already! i don't believe the riff raff of hardware problems... and if the browser fails, well i'm sure the user won't go back to the site, better something than nothing!...
Posted by sortit | February 7, 2009 9:19 PM
How in Jobs name are they ever going to support Flash when my Safari browser already crashes every three minutes on basic html sites? "Revolutionary Internet Device" my a$$. I'm tired of waiting for something that won't operate correctly even IF it does happen. I'm buying a Samsung Omnia HD as soon as they hit the market. Even if IT won't run Flash, at least it will shoot video (in HD!), another Apple shortcoming.
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i8910_omnia_hd-review-317.php
Posted by agent009 | February 20, 2009 2:57 PM
I believe the flash plugin for iPhone has been ready for a long time now. Apple just wants no part of it. Starting as early as this fall, smart phones will be shipping with the full version of Flash Player 10 and run Adobe AIR applications. This means apps that will run on your phone and your desktop. Same version.
Yes this includes Google, eBay, and Twitter clients. Google Adobe Marketplace.
If Apple allows FP10 or AIR, their app store will lose thousands to independent developers.
Posted by jakeZ | February 22, 2009 11:39 AM