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Do we *require* a counter-argument simply for that sake of having one?

Not simply for the sake of having one, no. But how do you determine if a counter-argument is worth having until you hear it?
 
Well, it looks like Flash will never come to the iPhone OS now. Interesting points, but I still wish we could use Flash, even if it made battery life half an hour.

1/2 hour, really? :rolleyes:

The fanboys are gunna love this...

Platitude quoting haters are "gunna" hate this...

Sorry, but he is an idiot.

This decision is clearly business-driven.

Apple is a business, duh.
 
Sorry, but he is an idiot.

This decision is clearly business-driven.

It may or may not be business-driven. If it is that doesn't make Jobs an idiot, it makes him a businessman and a great showman, both of which we already knew.
 
Such lame excuses Jobs. Everyone knows you don't want Flash because it would kill your app store profits. Just man up and admit it. You'll be better for it.
 
It's sad that pro-flash/anti-Apple people require a letter from Jobs explaining these things when these self-proclaimed nerds should know all of this already.
 
Go Steve. It's funny how many people are blinded by their own bias - and I'm not talking about apple fan boys. I'm glad apple is taking the 'let's be open' to this topic. I love it when big companies let everybody else know what they're thinking. These answers are all pretty straightforward and would be hard to argue against - for the most part these are all based on science and facts (saying this of course will spur multiple comments below trying to rebuttle each argument, each of which will be extremely naive and weak).
 
Steve is not right...

The reason is that if the flash coding is wrong and slows down my machine, I (the user) should be one choosing what I want for my machine (iPad or iPhone), not Steve.

Imagine that Steve Jobs start blocking my adobe aplications in my mac pro, that is what he is doing with the iPhone and iPad.

The problem that all the blind falks here do not see is that THE IPHONE AND IPAD ARE MINE!!!! AND I AM SUPOSED TO DO WHAT EVER I WANT WITH IT!!!!.

There is wher adobe has a zilion% right. The ned consumer has the right to choose what he wants for the device he adquire.
 
I had such high hopes that this was going to conclude with Apple bending on this stance. Wouldn't it have been so nice- and customer-friendly- if something like the following had been the "one more thing" to this message:

Apple is a customer-centered company and we've heard the longings for many of our users to be able to access Flash content in spite of all of these points. So, today we are going to open the option for Adobe to offer a Flash Player for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. This will be a user-option so that those who don't want Flash for reasons cited won't risk rapid battery depletion, security & stability issues, etc. But those who do want access to Flash features will be able to access them as soon as Adobe delivers the Flash player tuned for these devices.

This would do 2 key things:
  1. It would end the "we decide for you" stance of Apple, by letting their customers decide if they want to use Flash or not (the way- IMO- it should have been all along), and
  2. It puts all the pressure on Adobe to deliver an optimized Flash player for the premier mobile platform that doesn't seem to burn batteries too quickly, that doesn't result in security breaches, that doesn't crash Safari "4 times a day", and so on.

What is the customer-experience loss in allowing users to experience the "pain" of Flash if they so choose? Apple could even make the user option such that it provides an occasional warning message that summarizes the points in this letter, much like Safari has the warning message about security risk when a person visits certain websites.

Instead, Apple chooses to decide for its product buyers, rather than even extending the option. Even for the reasons shared in this letter, I'd rather decide to burn my own battery faster, etc myself. There are times when being able to access some specific Flash content is important, and there is not an HTML5 + H.264 + Javascript alternative available.
 
Steve is just trying to push Adobe to take Flash and innovate it further, because honestly... it's been piece of s* for too long, on Windows AND Mac!

It's time to step up Adobe!
 
Sorry, but he is an idiot.

This decision is clearly business-driven.

I will start by saying I love HTML5. But it will never kill flash. Not until they get their s**t together and until this"web standard" become an actual standard and you don't have to keep redesigning and making changes with every browser and browser updates. HTML is markup language that relies on css and java. And that's it.

Haha come on man, "an idiot" is the last thing he is, he is a super intelligent man. He is either very uninformed about Flash (not the case) or he knows whatever he says will be followed by thousands of people without questioning it.

Putting flash out of their device makes them millions of dollars with their appstore. Of course it's all business driven. But that's his job, to make Apple money, and he is very good at it.
 
Longer than expected

I expected something like:

"Flash. Not a big deal."

or

"Flash? Nope."
 
The key here is what Steve said was most important, Adobe wants it to be a cross-platform development tool and this would hinder developers since they would be at the mercy of a third-party's advancements.
 
The problem that all the blind falks here do not see is that THE IPHONE AND IPAD ARE MINE!!!! AND I AM SUPOSED TO DO WHAT EVER I WANT WITH IT!!!!.

There is wher adobe has a zilion% right. The ned consumer has the right to choose what he wants for the device he adquire.

I would say consumers have the right to accept what any vendor offers in relation to a product. If you don't like it, then don't buy it.
 
What is the customer-experience loss in allowing users to experience the "pain" of Flash if they so choose? Apple could even make the user option such that it provides an occasional warning message that summarizes the points in this letter, much like Safari has the warning message about security risk when a person visits certain websites.

It wouldn't work out like that. There would be alot of customers who would blame apple for problems with flash if the implemented it like that. Applecare would be flooded with support calls due to battery life issues.

So why would apple do something to ruin the experience for the majority of their customers by apeasing the want's of a few?
 
So Apple has done some studies among Ipad early adopters and found out that the single biggest fault of the device is: Lack of Flash.

And of course, attack is your best defense. Way to go Steve.
 
Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264 – an industry standard that is used in every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies.

Notice how Steve glossed over the fact that H264 is not an open? "Open standard" vs "industry standard".

An "industry standard" in control of patent holder MPEG LA (of which Apple is a member), who will start charging content providers in 2016. And when they charge content providers, they will charge us.

Thanks, Steve!

I know Flash has to go bye-bye sometime, but do you really have to charge us a toll as we drive along your highway to the future?
 
Reality distortion field at full effect... My thoughts on HTML5; there are no solid pro tools for highly interactive content creation. No tools = no go. Create professional quality tools Stevo and then you can tell its the way to go. If not then please stop talking nonsense.
 
They won't adopt it for Firefox because it is not an open standard. It is currently royalty free but at some stage (I ink 2015) it will become royalty charging as it is a patented technology. Therefore Mozilla have taken the opinion that a fully open standard should be employed for Firefox. It's possible though that at some stage someone will make a H.264 plugin for Firefox.

It's actually royalty free at least until 2016. And there's no guarantee that using Ogg will prevent you from being sued on patents.
 
It's all filler except for this:

Steve Jobs said:
If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.

That's really the only part that matters.

The iPhone is under Apple's control and Apple's goal is to make the iPhone better than other smart-phones. Letting Flash in would put the iPhone under Adobe's control and Adobe's goal is to make all smart-phones the same. That's what's good for Adobe.

It would be insane for Apple to hand over control to a company with such radically different goals.

You can certainly argue about everything else in the letter (both pro or con) but none of it really matters like this one point does.
 
Jobs concludes by noting that Flash was developed during the era of PCs and mice, but today's low-power, touch-based mobile devices require new standards and technologies.

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

^^Bottom line.

We don't need to kill flash. It will die a natural death.
 
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