Why iPhone Has No Flash
News Commentary. This afternoon, I had a, ah, flash of inspiration about why the iPhone doesn't yet support Adobe Flash. |
The software development platform is the reason. If I'm right, Apple won't rush Flash support but will delay it until the App Store is sufficiently entrenched.
Nearly 16 months have passed since Apple launched the iPhone. Many Apple observers opined about Flash's absence. They anticipated Flash support coming with iPhone 2.0 software. Nearly four months later, with Adobe Systems saying it has Flash ready for the device, there's still nothing for the iPhone. I suppose Apple could bring Flash support with iPhone 2.2, but I'm not expectant.
App Store is the iPhone's killer application. It's what can turn the iPhone into a mobile computing platform that could replace the personal computer. The cell phone's ascension to dominance over the PC is inevitable. Mobiles will be the more relevant computing and informational platform; the transition is well under way. What's not certain: which mobile platform, if any, will become dominant. App Store makes the iPhone a huge contender. Nokia should inherit the crown, given its huge device and operating system market share. But Nokia has fallen behind from a development platform perspective. Apple and now Google have better, even if nascent, strategies.
But how could App Store succeed as an immature development platform if developers could chose a more mature alternative—and one with huge adoption? There has been much speculation that Flash would reduce iPhone battery life between charges; quite likely. But the greater problem for Apple is Flash development—that developers would create applications outside the App Store. It's because Apple treats iPhone as a platform that the company wouldn't want to enable a scenario where Flash subsumed device development.
Instead, Apple has carefully worked around Flash, with the YouTube implementation being perhaps the best example. Reasons why Apple wouldn't want to support Flash, at least until App Store is more established:
- Apple maintains control over the user experience
- App Store becomes the primary application development and delivery platform
- Apple doesn't have to compete with a third-party application platform
Android shouldn't have the same Flash constraints (in the long term, anyway) because:
- Google embraced open-source development for third-party application development
- Android-based phones aren't Google's platform; they are the gateway to the company's search and information platform
- Adobe is working on Flash support for Android
The first Android based phone—T-Mobile G1 with Google, which officially goes on sale in two days—doesn't support Flash. But in September, Bill Perry, an Adobe mobile and devices evangelist, blogged: "We are working closely with all handset manufacturers that support Android and are expecting in the future that Android-based devices will ship with Adobe Flash support."
Of course, Adobe has iPhone Flash ready, too. It was promised, but not delivered. Open source is Android's difference. Flash surely will come to Android, if Adobe wants to make it happen. As for the iPhone, Apple decides when, if ever.
On the Mac, Apple treats Adobe as a partner and competitor. On the iPhone, Adobe is a rival.
[Please send your tips or rumors to watchtips at live.com.]
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Comments (7)
iPhone doesn't run Flash player because Steve Jobs is in a pissing contest with Adobe. Adobe never got over the snub years ago when Jobs decided OS X would have a home-made PDF viewer and Final Cut would have a consumer-priced version. Apparently some long-standing, unwritten agreements between the two companies were trashed by these moves and here we are today.
It wouldn't surprise me at all if Apple introduces a Flash-compatible player of its own design next January.
Posted by Greg | October 20, 2008 6:22 PM
flash is a properitery extension to the Internet. I don't want it to dirty my mobile browsing experience. Imagine a huge banner ad on your iPhone! Sucks right??? Java support is however an added advantage to iPhone.
Posted by Mugunth Kumar | October 20, 2008 8:18 PM
I agree with Joe on this, apart from it being a resource hog and nuisance, Apple wants the app platform for the iPhone based on its own development tools to mature into a dominant player first.
Posted by Andre Da Costa | October 21, 2008 12:58 AM
Flash ain't snappy, and the iPhone interface is snappy, snappy, snappy.
Posted by KenC | October 21, 2008 2:55 AM
Wow... thanks for stating the obvious.
It took you 16 months of pondering to realize that Apple is blocking Adobe from getting on the iPhone because Apple wants to be the sole provider of iPhone development tools?
Obviously you haven't followed Apple for very long. Back in the 1990's Apple fell behind and other companies became the dominant players in the Mac OS development tool space. At one point Metrowerks CodeWarrior was the tool of choice for Mac developers. When this occurred Apple lost control of their platform; they couldn't make changes to the underpinnings without first convincing the tool developers to make huge upfront investments that were not aligned with their (the tool makers') business goals.
So, Apple grew itself a pair of cajones and did what any real platform provider must to; it produced a software development tool and started giving it away for free. Look how smoothly the transition from PowerPC to Intel went down. That only happened because Apple controlled the dev tools. (By this point Freescale, a vendor of the PowerPC chips, owned CodeWarrior. Would they have been excited to add support for Intel, their competitor just to appease Apple?)
So, Apple's blockade of Flash shows that the company has learned from its own history. Yes, it might seem like an over-reaction, but it's not illogical. And it seems to be working for Apple, who enjoys a rich portfolio of iPhone-only software for their new mobile platform.
Prediction: you will NEVER see an application produced by a non-Apple app dev tool in the iPhone App Store. No Flash, no Java, no Silverlight, no REALbasic, etc.
Posted by Matt | October 21, 2008 8:38 AM
It's all about the control, for Apple. Flash would allow people to program at least small-scale applications for the iphone without going through Apple. And Apple's iphone agreement says very clearly that no interpreted language will be allowed on the iphone.
That explains not only why there is no flash, but also why java is not available, and neither is perl, tcl, python, ruby, or any other language that could be used to create an application without Apple's thumb on it.
Obviously, this will only be to Apple's advantage until other cell phone platforms take advantage of their greater freedom to offer applications that Apple just can't keep up with. The iphone was revolutionary at the time, but Android is probably the real smart phone platform to watch.
Posted by tommy higbee | October 22, 2008 11:24 AM
Good point that part of the decision is to enable more app store penetration.
However, this point validates the slogan "Windows Not Walls".
We're not too far from not even needing a watered down Flash player for mobile. Next gen. betas of Nokias have full Flash players, long battery life and open source Android where I suspect throngs of developers will head in '09 - I already see them gearing up w/ Gears, Android and Flash.
People are getting very tired of two Internets. Apple should focus on battery life and make good on their claim to "One Internet". Apple even showed the post After-Effects NY Times homepage in the first iPhone ads showing a Flash widget working. It was false advertising, period.
Carriers like AT&T are also afraid that if iPhone had Flash, people would watch video all day and suck bandwidth. This is why RIM is great at email and lousy as a browser. They strip/compress everything html related to save bandwidth.
The US mobile offerings pale in comparison to selection and flexibility of Europe and Asia.
Posted by Guest | October 22, 2008 11:36 AM