No Flash Support on the iPhone

[MacRumors]

Coming out of WWDC are reports that Apple has officially admitted that the Apple iPhone will not support Adobe's Flash plug-in in Safari.

Flash support has been a long unanswered question about the Apple iPhone. Steve Jobs had made comments early on that we might see Flash in iPhone according to David Pogue:

Markoff: “Flash [in the iPhone]?”
Jobs: “Well, you might see that.”

Of note, Jobs did say that Youtube support would be in the iPhone... but by sidestepping Flash altogether:

Jobs: “Yeah, YouTube—of course. But you don’t need to have Flash to show YouTube. All you need to do is deal with YouTube. And plus, we could get ‘em to up their video resolution at the same time, by using h.264 instead of the old codec.”

This portion of Jobs' plan came true with the Youtube addon for Apple TV which will require Youtube to convert their catalog of videos into the h.264 format.

[Ramsos]

It will be tought to have a good web browsing experience without flash support.

[Jon'sLightBulbs]

Not that Windows Mobile or Palm load flash either.

[Ramsos]

Originally Posted by Jon'sLightBulbs

Not that Windows Mobile or Palm load flash either.

Very true, I was just hoping to use my iphone inplace of my powerbook at times for casual browsing, without flash support it won't be the same.

[ppc_michael]

This day has just been... disappointing.

[Teddy's]

D'OH!!!

I won't be able to see the websites I like!!??

[mi5moav]

Yes, I think it's time to sell the stock needs to get to about 101 to 103

[DoFoT9]

hhmm dissapointing to see, but not that it doesnt matter a whole lot. uumm does it support java apps?? if not, then we will be in some trouble

[Chaszmyr]

Originally Posted by DoFoT9

hhmm dissapointing to see, but not that it doesnt matter a whole lot. uumm does it support java apps?? if not, then we will be in some trouble

No, no Java.

[darwen]

Sure, its dissapointing but lets be honest... we never really KNEW there would be flash. We just sorta guessed it.

This further's my argument that the images we are seeing for the iPhone ad's are composited. That flash on the NY Times page had to get there somehow... it there because the whole page is fake, it was not what was really on the screen. We have never seen a working iPhone show flash content. Of course, the October 2nd date proved this too. Thats beside the point though.

Everytime I see Apple pull another thing we are expecting from the phone, I cringe. I wish they would be more forward and just give us straight answers. Thats what gets us in this mess. I am gonna get one regardless, they already sold me on it. It just is a bummer to find out now that it isnt what I expected. I just wish I KNEW back in January what they had sold me on.

[Asar]

this is horrible! and for the record, WINDOWS MOBILE DOES LOAD FLASH!!!!! i have the plug in! heres proof!

http://www.adobe.com/products/flashp...ds/player.html

apple is really breaking my heart today. man, i'm seriously thinking of not wasting $600 on this phone now. this is nuts! a $99 Q has more features... come on steve! your killin' me here ...


"ranting" i know, but really, come on apple

[EricNau]

So I guess the iPhone doesn't really have the entire Safari app, does it?

[Chaszmyr]

We should all keep in mind that the iPhone can add new software features at any time, and hopefully Apple will not let us down by making that possibility go to waste.

[DoFoT9]

Originally Posted by EricNau

So I guess the iPhone doesn't really have the entire Safari, does it?

ahwell doesnt matter it still looks really promising on the ads, i am def going to buy one!!!! nice dp btw hahaha

[nagromme]

Bad news, though not a total surprise. Many smaller sites rely heavily on Flash navigation. A few major ones too. Without those, it's not quite the "real Internet."

Luckily, between now and the 16-32 GB version I'm waiting for, Flash may be added. (For that matter, it may well eventually be added for the first buyers too.)

Originally Posted by EricNau

So I guess the iPhone doesn't really have the entire Safari app, does it?

It's a different app obviously, but that aside, Flash is a plugin.

PS, Given all the great news today getting negative votes, I half expect this bummer to get mainly positives

[Brandon Sharitt]

So only part of the real internet? Oh well.

[Asar]

i'm just going to wait now to see if new apps come out. this sucks lol. a $50 blackjack has flash, a $600 iphone doesnt. what makes it the real internet?

[Virtualball]

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Sorry, Apple let me down today, now I'm not looking forward to the iPhone, there won't be ANY games for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its a ****ING phone, there NEEDS to be games!!!!!!!!

[darwen]

Originally Posted by Chaszmyr

We should all keep in mind that the iPhone can add new software features at any time, and hopefully Apple will not let us down by making that possibility go to waste.

Yeah, thats what I keep telling myself. They are gonna update it like they do with the iPod. We are gonna see more functionallity in it. Thanks to their smart accounting ideas, early adopters will get these upgrades through updates (in addition to people that buy after the updates). I just fear that the upgrades will be as slow as the iPod. Lets be honest... if they are selling... why add flash? Its all about money.

[eto]

no flash....
no SDK....
bummer.

[Virtualball]

I'm not paying 600 dollars for watered down "real internet", notes, and iChat.

Now there's nothing for me in this phone. I REALLY wanted it, I have the money and was SO excited till today. Seriously what's the point? I feel like I've been lied to for 6 months.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[EricNau]

Originally Posted by nagromme

It's a different app obviously, but that aside, Flash is a plugin.

Well, yes, but without plugins, a browser isn't much these days.

[jamesnajera]

Yeah, this is a big bummer. Steve should be working with Adobe and have them make a Flash plugin. The phone should also support Java Runtime, or at least J2ME. I also suggest that Steve put some form of Apache on the phone if we are to make third party apps with JavaScript and Ajax, hell he might as well throw in php too. Steve this is all sh*t you should seriously work on, especially the flash and Java.


I think we should all submit posts to apple and tell them to support Java and Flash.

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1184

late

[darwen]

Originally Posted by Brandon Sharitt

So only part of the real internet? Oh well.

Sorry to say, you are wrong. Browsers support flash. Flash is a product offered by adobe that browser's embed. Flash is not the internet. True, they are taking away elements key websites use. What that commercial is saying though is that the phone is built to view REAL WEBPAGES, not MOBILE VERSIONS. The addition of Flash is just a browser advantage. So the iPhone has a crappy browser? Maybe. But at least it can view REAL WEBPAGES. Dont believe me? check out http://mobile.macrumors.com ...thats what other phones see.

[iLunar]

So its not really the "Internet" then like those commercials say. Lack of Flash support is really lame. Something so simple and Apple bails on it. It makes no sense.

So many websites out there have flash elements. You just can't make a respectable browser without Flash now.