Steve Jobs vs Adobe Flash hits at the heart of why I dislike Apple so much (or Why I’m the most self-conscious iPhone owner ever)
The brilliant, eccentric, business leader (aka tyrannical ruler of all things Apple)of Apple corp came out with a paper this week that lists what his issues with Adobe Flash are. For those who aren’t aware, Adobe Flash is likely the most commonly used 3rd party plugin online. Although there are other formats, most video or website animations that you view online use Adobe Flash. As I understand it, Apple has refused to allow Flash on either the iPod, iPhone or the iPad. Not content to stop there, Apple has revised their program developer license so that Flash cannot even be used to build Apps for Apple’s App Store. (My understanding of the wording) Now don’t get me wrong, I am not a huge fan of Adobe. They have quite a few shortcomings themselves. When Steve Jobs accuses Adobe Flash of having security and stability problems, I can’t argue with that at all. However, when he calls Flash out for being closed… Apple is the King of closed!! The web is full of stories about the tight control that Apple exercises to maintain control. A developer can spend months and years on building an App for the app store and if Apple doesn’t approve it, they are dead in the water. Apple can also pull apps at any time that they have previously allowed. And that’s just the App Store. Try upgrading MAC hardware. How many options do you have? Have you ever tried to get a replacement battery for your ipod?
Here’s what general consensus is about Apple’s Anti-flash stance:
#1. We want more control.
#2. Free online Flash games are competition for our App Store.
#3. If we can help transition content from flash over to H.264, we can lay the groundwork for potentially huge royalty fees once the royalty-free perido ends (2016)
Apple makes some good products. I can admit this. I am still in shock at how much better the iphone is than a lot of other phones where the software and hardware developers have been in the business for quite a bit longer. Apple iMacs and MacBook’s have a high percentage of satisfied users. They are less likely to be infected (due to market share rather than actual security)
(To be continued)
Steve Jobs thoughts on Flash
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/?loc=interstitialskip
Six Reasons why Steve Jobs is Wrong on Flash
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2010/04/30/six-reasons-why-steve-jobs-is-wrong-on-flash/
Pot, meet kettle: a response to Steve Jobs’ letter on Flash
HTML5 video and H.264 – what history tells us and why we’re standing with the web
Open Letter to Steve Jobs
http://blogs.fsfe.org/hugo/2010/04/open-letter-to-steve-jobs/
Know Your Rights: H.264, patent licensing, and you
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/04/know-your-rights-h-264-patent-licensing-and-you/
The following is a bit unrelated to this particular issue, but since I’m going on a big Apple Rant, I’ll include them.
Apple Gestapo: How Apple Hunts Down Leaks
http://gizmodo.com/5427058/apple-gestapo-how-apple-hunts-down-leaks
Microsoft: Apple wanted ‘Laptop Hunters’ ads pulled
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10288022-37.html
Apple Makes Ellen DeGeneres Apologize Over iPhone Commercial Parody [When Did Apple Start Losing Its Humor?]
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2 Comments
01 May 10 at 11:02am
1
Have YOU ever tried to get a replacement battery for your ipod? Literally hundreds of vendors will sell you one and the tools you need to replace it. It's not hard. This adds nothing to your argument. and this: "we can lay the groundwork for potentially huge royalty fees once the royalty-free perido ends" is bull**** because Apple does not own h.264. Nice try at a conspiracy theory. I can't believe you can miss the point of that paper. Here is the paper distilled into two paragraphs: Flash sucks a**. We hate it because it's CPU (and thus battery) intensive and crashy, especially the version Adobe makes for the Mac. We also hate apps written for VMs because in our experience those apps suck ass--because the plugin they're coded to can never support every feature of the underlying platform immediately. We could change our native API tomorrow to give access to some new hardware, but Adobe would drag their feet at making our new features available via their API because they have to support every platform. For example, how would a flash based app support the accelerometer? GPS location? Would Adobe ever put these features in the API, which would not work on their main install base of regular PCs? While we could allow flash and thus stimulate the creation of millions of sucky apps, we aren't going to because we think they would supplant native apps (because they're easier to make, despite being sucky) and thus degrade the quality of our users' experience on the phones we make. At that point we would have no differentiation over every other platform out there. All phones would have the same sucky Flash apps. We'd prefer for people to write HTML5 websites--which don't tie you to Apple products--or if they want to take advantage of our hardware, yes, write a native app. We realize this requires more effort but we think it will be worth it.
22 June 10 at 10:20pm
2
Dan, Thanks for the feedback. While I will concede that I have not tried to get a replacement battery. I would suggest that although the tech-savvy are not thwarted in this endeavor, the majority likely still are. Also, Although Apple does not outright own h.264, multiple online sources list Apple in the list of companies that own "One or more" patents in the H.264/AVC Patent pool. Therefore it seems as though they will receive some percentage of any royalty fees that H.264 generates. Jeff Meier