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Steve Jobs Posts 'Thoughts on Flash' Open Letter

If Flash just did movies we wouldn't be having these constantly repeating comments. Apple make a very nice cut on apps. Enabling Flash would circumvent that revenue stream as it's a very popular deliverer of apps/games/whathaveyou.

It's purely business. Jobs is being disingenuous in his latest sermon from the hill. It's sad for humanity to see how many people take him literally at his word. I for one welcome our future reptilian overlords.
 
I agree with Jobs 100%.

Why should Apple have to pay millions of dollars to support a third party product when the developer has decided not to invest similar amounts to support and improve their own product and instead just reap profits?

Adobe chose to limit their investments on all Apple computers and devices. Adobe failed to update their technology to become more power efficient, secure, and usable on mobile devices.

Adobe recently started to fight hard to keep their old technology around in order to continue to be profitable. The failure of their business model does not entitle them to anything. Sooner or later Flash will die as technology progresses. It is up to Adobe to either adapt and survive or resist change and die.

Apple, being responsible to its own shareholders, would be negligent if they subsidized Adobe's profits with excessive support costs when better and more open solutions are available at far less cost. The fact that over time this improves the user experience for their customers as well as all web users is a bonus.

Apple pays directly for Adobe's failures every time they have to help a customer who encounters a problem that was caused in part by Adobe software. Apple also pays directly when they have to continue to develop their hardware and software to function reliably with multiple Flash implementations that have been very slow to be updated compared to other platforms. Apple also pays when their brand image of reliability is damaged because a third party product causes a problem. Apple pays. Customers pay. Adobe profits.
 
-Ryan- said:
Abobe in my opinion misread their ability to exert influence over Flash. I feel that they took the view that a device without Flash is unusable; rather from using my iPhone for years and my iPad in recent times it is clear that it is not necessary. This is a well thought out article --- death to Flash. It's had it's day. The only last real barrier to moving away from Flash altogether is the Mozilla position on H.264. Unfortunately I don't see them budging. :(
Click to expand...

I see their market share shrinking if they keep worrying about video/audio element options.
 
funkdis said:
The problem is, other platforms will be able to see the internet that us iphone users cannot see. I visit 3 sites a day that contain flash, one that is completely flash driven. I have to wait untill I get home. I know these sites will not change to HTML5 at least for now. But in saying that I want to see them now on the go, and not wait for them to change to HTML5 in 1/2/3 years time.
I am NOT getting the full experience of the web with my iphone.
Click to expand...

Since when has Flash been 'the web'? Are you complaining that there's no VRML plug-in for the iPhone? It's every bit as much part of the 'full experience of the web' as Flash is. (A non-standard, non-web protocol only enabled by the use of an external piece of software.)

funkdis said:
just found this pic on another forum... enjoy ;)
flash.jpg
Click to expand...

Ok, that's cute.
 
Google, grow some balls.

It really pisses me off that Google is going to try to rescue flash. And just make its death slower and slower.

While Google's at it. Why don't they bring back the Animated GIF and Midi Music.

They certainly haven't done their part in killing off IE6. Which they should have done for the good of the Internet.

Did you guys know that IE6 Browsershare is DOUBLE the Browser marketshare of Safari? Yea, check it out. Double the amount of people still use IE6, then Safari. Really sad.

Google. Grow some.
 
Flash is open

I don't agree with Steve here. Flash is open standard. It's altogether different matter that Adobe is the only (if I am not mistaken) company that makes tools to create flash. Any one is free to create their own tool.
 
MY "thoughts on Flash"

OK, After reading the article linked to the post, I understand now why :apple: doesn't support adobe flash now....but, isn't there a way for :apple: to come up with some kind of a non-propriatorial, touch-friendly form of flash?

This article, from what I'm understanding, is basically saying that :apple:, its apps, & youtube provide enough "neat" videos that we don't need flash...this is where I disagree. I don't always get to watch my shows at night, and as it stands, I'm not able to go to the station's website & watch the video of the episode I missed, because all but the ones from the "ABC app" are flash videos!

Kind of frustrated, but **loving** my iPad,
Zann
 
how the hell can anyone with a brain call steve jobs an idiot? i'm not some blind follower, the fact is, the man brought apple from being near bankrupt to being a leading mobile device company, and bringing the Mac market share to double digits. It almost seems inconceivable that he was able to pull all this off, but somehow he was. The man is a business genius, and has EARNED the respect of businessmen around the world.

So stop trolling, you have the right to disagree with what steve jobs says, and steve jobs isn't always right, BUT, to call him stupid is, in fact, stupid.
 
RazHyena said:
LOL! Steve has a problem with Flash being a CLOSED system???

ROFLMAO!! Now that's funny!! HAHAHA!!
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<chuckle> :p Yeah haha, your confusion (along with many folks here) is probably due to the way words have become overloaded. The notion of "open" and "closed" can be applied to various aspects of technology, themselves being named using other words such as "system", "platform", "source" and "standard".

Operating systems like Mac and Windows are (unlike *nix) inherently closed, which is why something like Java ever came into being in the first place. But the web is supposed to be based on totally open, non-proprietary components and content delivery mechanisms.

That's where the concept of "openness" is really required, and thus standards have been developed and defined. Flash however is an odd player in all this, because (unlike document formats such as html and image formats such as jpeg) its video/animation format is not "open". That's a problem for everyone... not just Apple or Mac users.

AppleInsider

RoughlyDrafted

Flash, Google, VP8, and the future of internet video




Mattie Num Nums said:
FYI: All of those "HTML5 is the standard". Wrong. HTML5 is a proposed standard that has missed many dates with the W3C for standardization. Last I saw it was proposed to be in Draft stage in 2012.
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Right right right... so what's the holdup then? :confused:
You don't suppose Adobe might deserve any credit?

More info:

Why Flash on iPhone OS Would Suck

An Adobe Flash developer on why the iPad can’t use Flash

The fallacy of Flash: why Adobe’s ideological war with Apple is bankrupt
 
This is getting ridiculous.

very valid points from Apple, Inc., and nothing proven from Adobe (Maemo 5 is the last Maemo) as of yet.

When major corporate entities begin to bash or downgrade one another's CEO or respective views of products/services on a daily/weekly/monthly basis like a Twitter Feed ... then its time BOTH CEO's get an internal "Fined Time-Out"!

Their acting like kids fighting in a sand-box!! I'd like BOTH parties to either freaking get a court case and make it serious as their "entertaining the press and stock holders" or both get on the merry-go round so I can spin them like mad unless they both wet their pants!

I'm seriously getting SICK of all this corporate leveraging, eye-poking and "my stuff is better than yours"

D8 ... I'm looking forward to Walt Mossberg to comment on this along these lines. Apple CEO Steve Jobs & Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen need to start acting their age; or leave this conversation to company fans in the forums.
 
I realize I'm going to take some heat for writing this, but everytime I read something written by Jobs, it makes me second guess my reason for owning so many Macs.

I have a 27" Imac, 2 macbook pros, 2 iphones, 1 IPad, an apple TV, and an airport extreme. I'm truly an all Mac house.

That being said, I can decide myself if I want 5 or 10 hour battery life..

And to talk about open standards, obviously very hipocritical. With all of the quality issues they have had recently I was on the fence on whether to switch to PC. I got one of the bad 27" Imac's with the yellow screen, and my Ipad doesn't get good reception with my airport extreme, another common problem.

Makes me wonder if I should switch.....
 
*LTD* said:
It's the way a winner talks. You can tell Apple has their ish together and has a pretty clear idea of what they want for the iPad and for consumers.
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You are right. Jobs is a Great Leader. He is always watching out for us.
 

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josh1231 said:
No, but I don't have $99 either.

http://developer.apple.com/programs/iphone/
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If you don't have $99, you probably don't have a Mac either, which makes the point moot. Because *that* isn't about to change.

barneyhanway said:
Actually, anyone with $0

http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Downloads
http://www.flashdevelop.org/community/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=6415&sid=ff32ca53e24702e106290ace2f2ec326
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I stand corrected. Though I gotta admit I was a little put off by this download: http://www.flashdevelop.org/downloads/releases/FlashDevelop-3.1.0-RTM.exe
 
I think you Apple supporters are all being sucked in by the "reality distortion field" from Jobs' letter.

It is of my personal opinion that Apple is more or less daring Adobe Systems to sue Apple for deliberately shutting out Adobe Flash--even the much-improved Adobe Flash 10.1--because Apple wants almost totalitarian control of the Internet experience, including buying apps, e-books, movies and music through Apple-approved sites only. That's almost the very opposite of the wide-open ideal that is the Internet, and as a result Apple--just like what Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to do--is wanting essentially a "walled garden" experience that looks beautiful but has no other choices.

This right there could be coming really close--if not going over the line--of legality in regards to tie-ins and exclusivity as defined by the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Acts. I think both the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division and the European Commission's antitrust division are watching Apple's actions with increasing interest, and the EC antitrust authorities--who harassed Microsoft to no end over web browser choice in Windows for years--could do the same to Apple not only over the availability of Flash in the iPhone OS but why they outright rejected the Google Voice app in 2009.

Small wonder why Apple expresses concern from Google's Android OS. Unlike the iPhone OS, Android is far more open, and the arrival of Android 2.2 in a few months could mean Android cellphones will become the first truly viable alternative to the entire iPhone ecosystem. Is it small wonder why Apple deliberately sued HTC, ostensively to slow down the large number of Android-based cellphones coming out this year?

In my opinion, Steve Jobs' cult of personality--though it has worked well in the past--may end up being a hindrance to the company because of Jobs' insistence on a very controlling experience in using an Apple product.
 
SactoGuy18 said:
This right there could be coming really close--if not going over the line--of legality in regards to tie-ins and exclusivity as defined by the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Acts. I think both the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division and the European Commission's antitrust division are watching Apple's actions with increasing interest, and the EC antitrust authorities--who harassed Microsoft to no end over web browser choice in Windows for years--could do the same to Apple not only over the availability of Flash in the iPhone OS but why they outright rejected the Google Voice app in 2009.
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We've done this before, but lets go through it one more time. The various (recently weakened, OBTW) antitrust acts are contingent on having a monopoly position. And Apple is actually far from holding a monopoly on smartphones:



Of course, the other angle is that you would've had to do something illegal beyond just holding a monopoly position. Say, like forbidding app store developers from also writing for Symbian or Android or the Crackberry. Or charging a developer a per-use fee for every app delivered whether on your platform or not. That kind of thing.

See, this Intarwebz lawyering thingie is tougher than it looks... :p
 
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