Prev: embedded videos
Next: Access Dynamic text
From: JoeThursday on 29 Apr 2010 14:37
Sure Steve.




Steve Jobs trashes Adobe's Flash
'Flash is no longer necessary,' says Apple CEO in open letter
explaining why iPhone, iPad will never run Adobe's software
By Gregg Keizer
April 29, 2010 01:05 PM ET


Computerworld - Adobe's Flash is slow, drains batteries, isn't
suitable for touchscreen devices and poses security problems, Apple
CEO Steve Jobs said in an unusual missive today.

In a lengthy open letter titled "Thoughts on Flash," Jobs spelled out
why Apple doesn't allow Adobe's popular technology on its iPhones,
iPod Touches and iPads. Jobs' epistle is the latest in the quarrel
between Apple and Adobe over Flash, bickering that reached new heights
two weeks ago when an Adobe evangelist told Apple to "Go screw
yourself."

Jobs' counter: Apple doesn't need Flash.

"Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of
Web content," Jobs categorically stated. "And the 200,000 apps on
Apple's App Store proves that Flash isn't necessary for tens of
thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications,
including games."

"This has been the big elephant in the room," said Michael Gartenberg,
an analyst with the Altimeter Group. "Jobs has stated very eloquently
why Apple doesn't want Flash on its platform. And for the most part,
his reasons make sense."

Other analysts agreed. "[The letter is] unusual, but it's a strong
move, leveraging Apple's control of the narrative," said Ezra
Gottheil, analyst with Technology Business Research. "The audience is
primarily content owners, and secondarily the developer community."

Jobs started by refuting Adobe's contention last week that Flash is an
"open" platform while Apple's technology is "closed," and hammered the
media format and its widely-used player for reliability, performance
and security issues. "While Adobe's Flash products are widely
available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled
entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe," said Jobs. "By
almost any definition, Flash is a closed system."

That was a direct rebuttal to comments made last week by Mike
Chambers, the principal product manager for Flash developer relations,
when Adobe announced it would stop development of a tool that lets
programmers port Flash applications to the iPhone and iPad.

Chambers had accused Apple of creating a "closed, locked down
platform" with its iPhone operating system and associated App Store,
and claimed that Flash was one of the "open platforms" that would
eventually win out over proprietary technologies.

"Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business
driven -- they say we want to protect our App Store -- but in reality
it is based on technology issues," Jobs said.

"The open/closed issues surround the content owners' fear of lock-in,"
opined Gottheil. "It is, of course, a business issue, but it is based
in technology. Apple isn't out to hurt Adobe, which is the accusation
Jobs seems to be contradicting, but it wants to control the user
experience."

Apple has made most of today's arguments before, but Jobs went into
more detail than any company executive has done in the past. On
Flash's performance, for example, Jobs blasted Adobe's inability to
create a media player up to his standards. "We have routinely asked
Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile
device, for a few years now. We have never seen it," said Jobs, adding
that Adobe had first promised Flash suitable for smartphones in early
2009, but then delayed it several times. "We think it will eventually
ship, but we're glad we didn't hold our breath," he said.

Jobs went to even greater lengths to explain the company's recent move
to ban software built using Adobe's cross-platform compiler, and
called it the most important reason why Apple can't stand Flash.

When Apple previewed iPhone 4, the next version of its mobile
operating system, three weeks ago, the company changed the licensing
language of its software developers kit, or SDK, to block developers
from using rival programming tools, including one from Adobe that has
been called an "end-around" Apple's ban of Flash, to create iPhone
and iPad applications.

Last year, Adobe debuted a tool in Flash Professional CS5 that takes
applications written in Flash's ActionScript and recompiles them to
run natively on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Although most analysts and development tool vendors saw the SDK
changes as aimed at Adobe, developer tool makers have struggled to
determine whether their software will also be affected, and have gone
to great lengths to calm their users' anxieties.

"We know from painful experience that letting a third-party layer of
software come between the platform and the developer ultimately
results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress
of the platform," Jobs argued. "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 accept an outcome where
developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements
because they are not available on our competitors' platforms."

"I don't know if it's the most important reason, but it's clearly the
most important reason to them," said Gartenberg, referring to the tool
issue. "Apple is worried that it could lose control of the user
experience and that [cross-platform] apps will be the least common
denominator."

Jobs continued to hammer at Flash's cross-platform compiler. "It is
not Adobe's goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and
iPad apps," he said. "It is their goal to help developers write
cross-platform apps. And Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt
enhancements to Apple's platforms." As an example, Jobs noted that
Adobe just completed its adoption of Apple's Cocoa development
environment two weeks ago, 10 years after Apple launched Mac OS X.
"Adobe was the last major third-party developer to fully adopt Mac OS
X," said Jobs.

"He's laid out their argument fairly well," said Gartenberg. "But this
will spark debate in some circles. Some will debate the granularity of
these issues forever, but I think this is the last word on the subject
from Apple."

Unless Apple's customers revolt -- which they've shown no signs of
doing because of Flash's omission -- Jobs won't change his mind, said
both Gartenberg and Gottheil.

"The lack of Flash doesn't seem to be hurting the iPhone, the iPad or
the iPod Touch, so Apple is winning," said Gottheil. "If lack of Flash
support hurts sales, Apple will adapt."

Adobe did not respond to a request seeking comment on Jobs' letter.



http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9176132/Steve_Jobs_trashes_Adobe_s_Flash?taxonomyId=77
 | 
Pages: 1
Prev: embedded videos
Next: Access Dynamic text