Thoughts on Flash (2010)

In 2010, Apple had a complex relationship with Adobe, which began when Adobe was a small company in its early stages. Apple was one of the first major customers of Adobe's Postscript language for their Laserwriter printer. The two companies collaborated closely to promote desktop publishing, but over time, they grew apart as Apple experienced financial difficulties while Adobe focused on the corporate market with its Acrobat products.

The reason Apple does not support Adobe's Flash on its iPhones, iPods, and iPads is not purely business-driven, as Adobe claims. It is rooted in technical issues. Adobe's Flash products are entirely proprietary, controlled by Adobe, and available only through Adobe. In contrast, Apple believes that all web standards should be open.

Instead of using Flash, Apple has adopted open standards such as HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. These open standards are used to create advanced graphics, typography, animations, and transitions without relying on third-party browser plug-ins like Flash.

Apple's mobile devices come with high-performance, low-power implementations of these open standards. HTML5, adopted by Apple, Google, and many others, enables web developers to create advanced features without relying on third-party plugins. Apple also created WebKit, an open-source HTML5 rendering engine that powers Safari in all Apple products. WebKit is widely used by other mobile browsers, including Android and Nokia's.

Adobe has repeatedly stated that iPhones, iPods, and iPads cannot access "the full web" due to 75% of web video being in Flash. However, most of this video is also available in H.264 format, which can be viewed on Apple devices. Popular websites like YouTube, Vimeo, Netflix, and various news outlets offer their content without relying on Flash. Apple devices can access and view this content without any issues.

Furthermore, Adobe claims that Apple devices cannot play Flash games, which is true. However, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles available on the App Store, many of which are free. The App Store offers more games and entertainment options than any other platform in the world.

Apple devices also provide better reliability, security, and performance compared to Flash. Symantec highlighted Flash as having one of the worst security records in 2009, and the author has personally experienced Flash-related crashes on Macs. Adobe has been working to address these issues, but they have persisted for several years.

In terms of battery life, Flash requires software decoding, which uses more power than hardware decoding in modern mobile devices. H.264, an industry standard, is used in Blu-ray DVD players, YouTube, Vimeo, Netflix, and other companies. H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours on iPhones, while software-decoded Flash videos drain the battery within five hours.

Additionally, Flash was designed for PCs using mice and not touch screens like those on Apple devices. Flash websites often use "rollovers," which do not function well with touch input.