Steve Jobs speaks out on Flash

In a statement posted to Apple’s Web site on Thursday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs defined Apple’s objections to supporting Flash in the iPhone OS.

Outlining six major points, Jobs explains why Apple and Adobe are at odds over Flash support in iPhone OS. He takes issue with Adobe’s characterization that the decision is “primarily business driven,” and explains the technical rationale behind Apple’s decision.

Points addressed by Jobs include Flash’s proprietary nature, compared to Apple’s support of open standards including HTML5, CSS and JavaScript; issues surrounding reliability, security and performance of Flash; its effect on mobile device battery life and a user interface designed for mice, not touch screens.

“Adobe also wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on our mobile devices,” referring to Adobe’s Creative Suite 5 software. Apple’s revised iPhone developer agreement prohibits developers from using these tools to create iPhone apps.

“We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform,” said Jobs.

“Our motivation is simple – we want to provide the most advanced and innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to stand directly on the shoulders of this platform and create the best apps the world has ever seen,” he added.

Calling Flash an artifact of “the PC era” designed for PCs and mice, Jobs referred to “the mobile era” as being driven by low power devices, touch interfaces and open Web standards, “all areas where Flash falls short.”

“Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind,” he concluded.

Eric

The gauntlet is thrown down Adobe. Prove him wrong. Make Flash open (open it up, like DNG and PDF). Make it touch-friendly. And make it sleek and fast. You guys are smarter than the average Microsoft.

Make Jobs' points invalid.

And give us a great WYSIWYG HTML 5 editor while you're at it.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Adobephile Adobephile

Steve's statement is excellent. Very well thought out, comprehensive and concise, non-confrontational, etc. He simply lays the facts on the line.

The issue is simply that Flash is old technology and that Apple can't afford to be hobbled by it on its mobile products.

It's a clear statement of policy designed to set the stage for Apple's mobile device future. He in fact invites Adobe to come along and be a part of it–but to leave Flash behind.

I can't imagine how he could have said it better.
Jocca

I do not want Flash on my iPad. It does not even run well on my Mac desktop and the battery life on the iPad is so wonderful that it needs to be protected from the wrong kind of technology running on it.
Shock Me

I can't wait for IE6 and the Flash plug-in to die. Why should I wait a decade for Adobe to incorporate new features that have been in my hardware since my son was a toddler? It's bad enough we have to wait for ATT network upgrades. So, at home and on the go, I use iPhone OS apps.

Ironically, I spend my work days describing graphics changes in MS Word docs, Access databases, and Excel spreadsheets, just so my boss doesn't have to purchase yet another expensive Adobe CS license.

Because Adobe's development tools aren't cheap enough, intuitive enough, or multi-access, I have to write long detailed entries and have our GAs revise any incorrect text that appears in a monolithic .SWF file.

So, by all means, keep that IE6 and Flash cross-platform thing going. (At least until my student loans are paid off.)
SteveS

Jobs' points were stated very well. Given the amount of trash talk to have come from various Adobe blogs, an official Apple position on this subject was long overdue.

That said, Jobs was a bit off base criticizing Adobe for being late to support Apple technologies (Cocoa) given that Apple itself still hasn't done so with major titles like Final Cut Pro, iTunes, etc.
http://www.wildreason.com Freelance Web Design

This is the beginning of the end for flash. As someone doing freelance website design that has ALSO always refused to incorporate flash into my websites, I am superbly happy to hear things like this. Microsoft, Google, Apple, amongst many others have now openly spoke out on their encouragement to find a supplantation to Flash.

So exciting. It might take a while, but HTML5 is definitely on the horizon!