This is probably the most reasonable commentary on the topic of Adobe Flash Player’s absence from Apple’s iPhone. Since the day the iPhone was announced I have fielded questions on this topic in almost every single presentation that I have given. No exaggeration.
I still can’t provide any “insider information” even though I’m no longer with the company (and I don’t really have any anyways – seriously). But the reasoning that Wired’s Brian X. Chen provides is exactly what I would suggest in conversation.
[...] Allowing Flash — which is a development platform of its own — would just be too dangerous for Apple, a company that enjoys exerting total dominance over its hardware and the software that runs on it. Flash has evolved from being a mere animation player into a multimedia platform capable of running applications of its own. That means Flash would open a new door for application developers to get their software onto the iPhone: Just code them in Flash and put them on a web page. In so doing, Flash would divert business from the App Store, as well as enable publishers to distribute music, videos and movies that could compete with the iTunes Store.
I first heard this idea while at Microsoft’s MIX ’08 conference in Las Vegas earlier this year. Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer was asked (probably in jest) whether the iPhone would ever support Silverlight. Balmer snickered and then proceeded to explain that Apple’s (then recent) announcement of the iPhone SDK and marketplace was a signal that they intend to completely control the marketplace and developer platform for iPhone apps. If I recall correctly, he said something to the effect of, “Apple isn’t interested in open development for the iPhone.” I’m sure Apple would counter that Safari-based apps count as “open development” but, well, you make the call on that one.
In my opinion, Apple’s model for iPhone app development is pretty smart. Before the iPhone the number of Cocoa/Objective-C developers was probably pretty small. I’d bet they’ve seen a HUGE increase in registered developers since the release of the SDK (I’m one of them, and I know my friend Mesh is as well). And I think Apple is one of the only tech companies that could pull this off. But I don’t know if they can sustain their tight grip on iPhone development for long.
Now, that said, I still think there’s a chance that Flash will make it’s way onto the iPhone. It would most likely be as a Safari plugin so users could actually browse “the real Internet” as Apple likes to say in their ads. In his recent keynote at Adobe’s MAX user conference in San Francisco, Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch had much to say about Flash on mobile devices, including bringing Google Android creator Andy Rubin up on stage to talk about Flash running on Google’s new device OS. I think market pressures – more than anything – will force Apple to embrace Flash at some point.
I really hope they don’t ever support Flash. Flash is a huge resource hog and there’s really not much of a reason to support it, especially since most Flash apps aren’t designed for the sort of interface the iPhone has.
Couldn’t agree more.
This must be the only reason and from their perspective is “right”.
I think too that the day where the whole web will be on the iPhone is coming, but this delay offers Apple a chance to get money and the most important thing.. To build a developers base for the iPhone.
Then the App store will have a chance to stay alive.
But for once again, I’m impressed with what they managed to do.. If you think about it, it sounds so “out of space”. No other company could managed to do the “iPhone” boom. Just to remind everyone what Christian Cantrell said once: “The iPhone is 5 years ahead and 5 years back” (or something like that but you get the point).
@kevin ballard
I hear what you’re saying. I wouldn’t want Flash Player support in the iPhone’s Safari browser unless it yielded satisfactory performance. Regarding Flash apps being designed for the larger screen, yes, I agree that’s an issue. However, there is a great deal of Flash content embedded in web pages (especially video) that I would love to be able to access from my iPhone. Some stuff might not work – but the same would be the case for any web apps. There’s nothing about Flash that would make this a uniquely bad problem.
Yeah, it breaks the whole app-store revenue model …
I kind of thought that had been the general consensus ever since the app store was announced.
We’ll probably never see Flash on the iPhone unless there is really serious competition from a device that does support Flash, or if jailbroken iPhones could support Flash.
It would be terrible if the flash player got reverse-engineered and released for jailbroken iPhones. Terrible.
I’m pretty dubious about Flash ever coming to the iPhone, Apple has pretty firmly thrown its weight behind HTML/JS/CSS web apps. With JS performance picking up pace with every Safari release it offers a great platform for RIA apps along the lines of those developed with Flash / Flex. You’ve only got to check out the HTML 5 spec and the work by the Webkit team adding things like CSS animations etc then you can see where Apple’s focus is.
One thing I would like to see though is playback of FLV video on the iPhone, that’s really the #1 most needed Flash feature on the iPhone. It could be handled by the Quicktime framework and is certainly technically / legally feasible given the openness of the FLV standard these days.
@Kevin Ballard, Savvas Malamas
consider this:
http://developer.sonyericsson.com/site/global/newsandevents/latestnews/newssept08/p_projectcapuchin_sdkannouncement.jsp
what the iPhone needs now is a good dose of competition
my 2c
Wired is just writing about this now? :) I’ve been saying this for months, as soon as I heard about the SDK and their business model.
One more thing … they sure are selling quite a bit of MacBooks to native platform (iPhone) developers. Not to shabby … esp with some of top of line new MBP’s priced above $2k.
Maybe that’s one additional reason they are able to do the great revenue split on content sold on AppStore.
I’ve been spouting the same rhetoric as well, so this was a good read. I think you hit the nail on the head, but I also believe Adobe is missing one key point. The entry point for the player shouldn’t be on the browser. Obviously if its on the browser then these mega flash sites are just not going to work. The flash content for the web isn’t designed performance wise or visually for the IPhone, so the experience is going to be poor. If you go to view a flash site and the browser crashes, user mentality is @#$@#$ browser. They think it is the phone’s fault. On the other hand, if the you are able to build app store based flash apps. A) you have to tailor the dev to whatever hybrid player they have create, so by dev practice you are having to develop a certain way (you are targeting the device). B) If your app crashes then the end user thinks.. @#$@# app. There is a difference in blame in both scenarios. C) You are making the app store space bigger, encouraging the use of apple’s store (which obviously they can take a cut of sales). D) Apple is able to control the player capabilities.
Now will they do it? Like you said, everyone wants to make apps for the IPhone. For every IPhone dev they get one more OSX dev by nature, and thus build their dev base. From a biz standpoint does it make sense for them? If you are taking away possible developers for their OS, it’s shakey. If they are increasing the app store base and they are able to sale N more apps and make N more dolars, then there is a case there. It would also be the case if they had their own form of AIR player that was way more integrated with the OS. If you go the route of the browser, there is no biz case for them. Some thoughts.
The only way flash will get into the iPhone is if it’s clearly hurting Apple or the iPhone. The day won’t come anytime soon with the 10,000 apps in the App Store plus the development of other javascript/html/css solutions. Flash is too much of a memory hog (I have to kill it on my Windows box every other day, and this is ads in flash i’m talking about) right now. Adobe and Apple would have to work together for an acceptable (to Apple and the public) solution. Not happening.
Personally i think it’s all about video playback. As Flash has got better and better at delivery good quality video, QuickTime has received less usage generally. With the exception of professionals presenting their work, it seems QT is rarely used these days. If Apple where to allow a full-featured Flash player on the iPhone, then why would anyone other than motiongraphics / video professionals trouble themselves with encoding in QT? Yes i know QuickTime produces much better quality video, but i don’t think average Joe/Anne really cares that much, especially when viewing on a hand-held device. Flash on the other hand, can deliver good video, along with all the interactive functionality (Viddler or YouTube’s inline commenting for example), that QT isn’t going to deliver any time soon.
My thoughts exactly. In a post of mine back in July (http://www.chuckstar.com/blog/?p=189), I wrote that Apple understands how much of a platform Flash is. They would lose control over their app distribution channel with Flash Player installed on the iPhone.
My words from early this year … on the ActionScript Hero blog, http://tinyurl.com/5zkqcw
“In regards to web standards, I think it is a real shame that a Flash Player has not made it onto the current incarnations of iPhone (yet).
However, it’s been publicly stated that Adobe is working on their on technology to leverage Flash on the iPhone. I think it’s only a matter of time before Flash on iPhone happens, and by then I think iPhone might have better numbers in the “global numbers game”, anyways.
Right now, I think the hold up is most likely business reasons, much more than technical. It’s blatantly obvious, Apple doesn’t Flash Developers right now, or any other mobile application development camps, for that matter. They want to attract native Mac platform developers that can learn, and develop for their own OS, platforms, and devices, first and foremost. A smart business move.
At some point, though, it’ll make sense to bring on board other development platforms. In today’s mobile world with the Adobe Open Screen Project, Open Symbian Foundation, and Android, it’ll be challenging to survive in the next generation of mobile “open-ness” that is most likely coming with these and other initiatives.
To sum up, I do hope Flash comes to iPhone sooner rather than later, but in terms of Flash on devices, I have not been holding my breath for Apple.”
I hate it when people say “Flash is a huge resource hog”! Developers are to be blamed for this and not the platform itself! It all depends on how you program and there are a lot of designers out there trying their hands on development leaving memory leakages here and there and the stuff peaks oh!
At least there’s Flash Player 7 for Windows Mobile and it runs well. There’s even packagers that install it as a standalone app and runs fine on most windows devices which have lesser CPU speed than even the iphone and minute memory.
Consider my Treo 700W: 312mhz processor with 25.48MB of Ram, runs Flash well, compare that with an iPhone of double CPU speed and x4 memory. Folks, it all depends on the developer, not necessarily flash player.
Aside all these, Apple’s had a long hatred for Flash cos it puts out their quicktime, Have you asked why they dont even have it on their site??? Is it cos of speed or memory when even Micro$oft uses flash?
Steve jobs is a smart cookie. He obviously wants his Quicktime to prosper. Though I dont know what they are doing about QuickTime. Havent heard much about it
I don’t think Quicktime is that important to Apple any more. That’s not it.
Mike,
I posted my own thoughts on the IPhone. In part I discuss it’s impact on mobile, but also the only approach for Flash to make sense on it.
http://www.kennybunch.com/blog/2009/01/apple-iphone-revolution/
To live is to function.That nhl jerseys is all there is in living.To feel that one has a place in boston bruins life solves half the problem of buffalo sabres content. High nhl jersey sales online expectations are the key to every chicago blackhawks thing. If you wait, all that happens is that edge jerseys you get older.