Web Browsing Performance on Android 2.2 Hampered by Flash Compatibility

[AidenShaw]

If companies don't decide for you, we would still be using VHS tapes.

Good argument. That explains why LaserDisc is the leading current video format - VHS sucked.

</sarcasm>


Point is - the marketplace decides. Companies that try to push something else on consumers will suffer. (Sony stumbled after BetaMax was rejected in the consumer space (in spite of many advantages) - then redeemed itself by coming out with the best damn VHS decks on the planet).

People still shoot with beta today, beta moved to the professional side while VHS moved to the consumer. As far ad HD DVD is concerned blu Ray won becau the hundred of millions given in bribes to Fox and Warner Brothers.

Blu-ray won for being a better, more modern technology. HD-DVD was crippled by trying to stay more compatible with old school DVD. (If you're going through the pain of changing formats, make a bigger leap with longer payback - not a small jump.)

And - the big "Blu-ray is too expensive" argument from the HD-DVD camp has been proven to be nonsense - just look at the big section of $9.99 Blu-rays at Fry's every week.

 

[mtwilford]

If companies don't decide for you, we would still be using VHS tapes.

and what's wrong with VHS

My point is that the consumer should make the choice; I am not pro or anti flash, the marketplace will determine the correct direction

 

[tkatz]

Chill

NO

just kidding ... yeah yeah I may have went a bit over there, but the thing is, people still don't think about those things.

 

[derek4484]

...... We needed someone like Steve Jobs to say "no" entirely in order to deal it a lethal shot....

Well who elected you or Steve Jobs supreme ruler of the internet? Why should you or him get to decide if Flash lives or dies. Obviously hundreds of millions of people like Flash and use it everyday. Now with Android 2.2 out and Flash 10.1 on that mobile platform (the one that just surpassed iphone) Flash will not die out, but possibly even flourish.

 

[JoEw]

It's important that mobile browsing not have flash, web standards will be the future on mobile browsers, the amount of power and CPU that is required for flash or any other browser plugin for that matter is to great for mobile phones.

 

[JoEw]

Well who elected you or Steve Jobs supreme ruler of the internet? Why should you or him get to decide if Flash lives or dies. Obviously hundreds of millions of people like Flash and use it everyday. Now with Android 2.2 out and Flash 10.1 on that mobile platform (the one that just surpassed iphone) Flash will not die out, but possibly even flourish.

So the future of mobile internet is a sluggish CPU intensive experience?

 

[macrumors12345]

Battery Life

What's most shocking to me about that video is just how fast the battery life drains on the Nexus One. It drops by 25-30% in just 15 minutes of browsing. In comparison, the iPhone 3GS drops by only 4% during the same period loading the same websites. We knew Flash was going to kill battery life, but this looks even worse than many of us were expecting.

 

[K...]

WTF... this is news??!!??

Of course a page that loads all of the data on it is going to take longer than one without all of the data.

Switch Flash off on your desktop and pages will load faster, too.

The real news is that Google is supporting Flash on Android. The stutters are probably part of the design of not having all Flash content on a page running at the same time (i.e. if it's not presently scrolled into view, it pauses; scroll it back into view and it start playing again). The stuttering effects will clearly improve for the release as well as over time as Adobe sees how the average user is using Flash on their mobile devices.

I say kudos to Google and Adobe for letting us see behind the curtain before the final release. It take guts to show what you're working toward without it running perfectly, especially with all the jabs at Flash lately.

I just want the choice. My next phone will be Android, unless Apple gives me the choice to run Flash when I want to.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

Google: Enabling Flash is the user's decision.

Apple: "Is protecting me from porn."

Dear Apple,
We love your views of porn protection. Maybe you should check out our latest software called Green Dam.

Thanks!
China

 

[derek4484]

Why not?

Why wont Steve Jobs allow Adobe to put Flash 10.1 in the app store?

If an iphone owner wants Flash on his phone then he can go and download it, if an iphone owner doesnt want Flash, then they dont download it. Simple as that.

What's Stevie boy afraid of? People actually getting to see the web the way web designers intended?

No, of course not. Its all about money. Stevie boy wants you to have to pay and download game apps from his app store, not go to a website and get to play them for free.

Apple/Steve have greatly surpassed M$ in terms of how evil and monopolistic they act. Only one thing drives Apple, the almighty dollar. They used to be this good, nice, "hippie", do-no-evil, company. Not anymore.

 

[ChazUK]

Is that a lot? It's a lot less than one percent of all Android users. How many Android 2.2 users are there?

I'd guess here are very few FroYo users out there as it wasn't released to all Nexus One owners (of which there aren't many too).

I couldn't provide any accurate numbers sadly.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

Blu-ray won for being a better, more modern technology. HD-DVD was crippled by trying to stay more compatible with old school DVD. (If you're going through the pain of changing formats, make a bigger leap with longer payback - not a small jump.)

And being the innovator Apple is they jumped right on the Blu Ray band... whoops....

 

[wovel]

Come on, why do you compare browser with full compability, with the one doesn't even support ?,
Its not fair.

It is fair. Not one of those pages was showing a page with any flash content anyone actually wanted to view. In the one page with a flash video,the iphone user would have been down watching the video before the Nexus 1 user even saw the preview image. The test was 100% fair. Lie down with the dogs and wake up with the fleas.

What's the cake?

The Cake is a lie..(Thanks Steam for your new Mac Software and the free portal download).

Couldn't help but notice the battery life drops while all three were being compared...

iPhone lost 3%, while the Flash-toting HTC seemed to lose closer to 15%.

Not that I'll argue that it's not nice to have the option of course. But it strikes me that the option would be less and less employed over time as people take to wanting more out of their battery. And it looked unresponsive enough to me in this iteration to label it as nothing more than a gimmick.

That should be amended to the other quote in this thread. "Flash, for when your battery lasts too long".

Typical fanboy answer, you don't want or need flash because Steve jobs said you don't want or need flash.

I don't want or need flash because it has no value to me. I have disliked flash since long before Steve Jobs ever publicly commented on it. I have disliked flash since the first time I had to download a plugin to look at web page. Macromedia broke the Internet. Steve Jobs is trying to fix it. You should thankful.

 

[kdarling]

So the future of mobile internet is a sluggish CPU intensive experience?

You mean like surfing the web on a 400MHz iPhone 2G with EDGE only?

Of course not.

The historical reality is that everything gets bigger, faster and more powerful.

The future will have ever faster broadband and cpus, and one day soon discussions like this will sound outdated.

Anyone over the age of (fill in the blank) has seen this happen again and again.

 

[Compile 'em all]

And being the innovator Apple is they jumped right on the Blu Ray band... whoops....

Innovation is not about doing things first. It is about doing things right.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

Macromedia broke the Internet. Steve Jobs is trying to fix it. You should thankful.

Apple + Adobe collaboration + Full Apple Hardware Support for Flash = Problem Solved.

Steve isn't trying to fix it, hes pushing his own agenda.

Innovation is not about doing things first. It is about doing things right.

Whats right to you may not be right to someone else.

 

[derek4484]

I say kudos to Google and Adobe for letting us see behind the curtain before the final release. It take guts to show what you're working toward without it running perfectly, especially with all the jabs at Flash lately.

I just want the choice. My next phone will be Android, unless Apple gives me the choice to run Flash when I want to.

I'm the proud owner of an iphone 2G and have been dying waiting for the new iphone 4/HD to come out. But with the release of Froyo and all the features and increased speed (it was running circles around an ipad) I'm strongly considering getting an Android phone. The built-in wifi tethering is very cool (something that we were promised from apple & AT&T a year ago) and now that Flash works on it, that probably seals the deal for me. I say probably because I'm going to wait until I see what drops at the WWDC in a couple weeks.

 

[jsbaugh]

At least Android gave users the option.

Turn it on if you don't mind the performance decrease, turn it off if you'd rather not see it. I'd much rather the option than to be left out in the dust, as I'd turn it on before going to a website to watch a movie / show and I'd have it turned off for my everyday browsing.

Everyday I give my customers the option of me taking a dump in their outgoing order. You would be surprised how many don't like that option.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

I'm the proud owner of an iphone 2G and have been dying waiting for the new iphone 4/HD to come out. But with the release of Froyo and all the features and increased speed (it was running circles around an ipad) I'm strongly considering getting an Android phone. The built-in wifi tethering is very cool (something that we were promised from apple & AT&T a year ago) and now that Flash works on it, that probably seals the deal for me. I say probably because I'm going to wait until I see what drops at the WWDC in a couple weeks.

I'm a big fan of the Sense UI. I am waiting for the new iPhone since I too have a first generation iPhone. If the new iPhone is "magical" than I'm in.

 

[darbus69]

me no want/need/miss flash

ever...

 

[skyehill]

That android browser isn't just faster than Safari, it's SIGNIFICANTLY faster. What a nice phone.

 

[baryon]

I'm happy that Flash is finally available on a mobile device. This is good because we can all finally see what it's really like. Apparently, it works, so Flash is playable. However, it makes the rest of the web page too slow. I don't know about battery life, but since it hogs the CPU to a point where even scrolling is slow, it probably drains the battery a lot. This is a beta so we can't say whether it's bad just yet. I guess it won't get that much better than this. We'll also finally see whether Android users are enjoying Flash on their phone, and then we can decide whether there was a point in arguing so much about Flash in the first place. Maybe it's lame and even if it works well, the screen is too small to enjoy and no one will end up using it anyway, who really knows?

 

[-=XX=-Nephilim]

I was actually quite impressed with the size of the HTC's screen and its performance. It was very responsive even at times when the iPhone lagged a bit.

Indeed

I won't be looking at any iDevice anymore until Apple wakes up to users needs and one of those needs is definitely Flash support...

 

[Lord Vader]

That android browser isn't just faster than Safari, it's SIGNIFICANTLY faster. What a nice phone.

That's just difference in webkit version and better hardware specs. That will change soon.

 

[FFArchitect]

With Flash heading to the many millions of current and future Android owners, I think Flash is going to be around for a lonnnnggggg time yet. Personally, I don't think Stevie should have any authority over the future of Flash. He should stick to his own walled garden and leave the decision about other products to someone else.

You cannot be serious.