The bickering between Apple and Adobe over why Apple's iPhone and its new iPad don't run Adobe's Flash software is, excuse my language, a pain in the ass.
Apple's Steve Jobs says Flash is buggy and accuses Adobe of being lazy. Kevin Lynch, Adobe's chief technology officer, denies that and accuses Apple of trying to control what iPhone and iPad users can do with their devices.
Jobs thinks Flash is on its way out. And Kevin Lynch says, not so fast!
It seems to me that Apple and Adobe need each other. Even if they didn't, the millions of consumers who own iPhones and iPod touches or who plan to buy an iPad need them to work things out. Because we're the ones who are going to lose out if they don't.
Adobe's Flash is a program that delivers multimedia content such as games, videos and advertisements. Adobe says the majority of top Web sites include Flash content and that 75 percent of the video on the Web is delivered using Flash.
Flash has mostly been a PC experience, because Flash players either haven't been available on smartphones or weren't powerful enough to access much of the Flash content on the Web.
Until now, the lack of Flash on the iPhone hasn't been that big of a deal. When the iPhone debuted in 2007, the browsing experience was better than other mobile phones that it was hard to complain that it didn't support Flash. And because other smartphones also lacked Flash support, iPhone users didn't feel they were missing something.
I believe that's about to change. Through an initiative called the Open Screen Project, Adobe is revamping Flash to allow consumers to access almost all the multimedia content they can get on a PC by using their smartphone.
By the end of June, Adobe expects to have Flash version 10.1 available for a wide range of smartphones, including Palm's webOS phones, BlackBerrys and devices running Android and Windows Mobile. The only major smartphone operating system missing from the list is Apple's iPhone OS.
iPhone users may not have worried much that their phones can't simultaneously run more than one app like other smartphones [Android and Palm's WebOS]. But they soon may be unhappy that their phone can't access the videos and games that other phones will be able to.
iPad owners may be even more annoyed. One thing people will want to do with Apple's new tablet is access Web content, mainly since that was the reason for marketing. But if they can't watch a video on Hulu or play a game on Facebook, they may regret having bought an iPad instead of a netbook for $150 less.
While Apple enjoys a huge lead in applications available for the iPhone, Flash support could help its competitors level the playing field. With Flash, those devices could offer more games, videos and other content not available on the iPhone.
Jobs' view of Apple not needing to support Flash because it's on the way out is premature. While a new version of the language used to code Web pages does include Flash-like multimedia capabilities [HTML5], the standard for doing that is still being hashed out. With only a fraction of Web surfers using browsers that can translate the new language, few Web publishers are using them yet.
So Apple needs to support Flash in the iPhone OS — or risk losing customers to other platforms that do.
But most of all, iPhone OS users need Apple to quit smoking the crackpipe, because consumers will be missing out until they do.
Apple's Steve Jobs says Flash is buggy and accuses Adobe of being lazy. Kevin Lynch, Adobe's chief technology officer, denies that and accuses Apple of trying to control what iPhone and iPad users can do with their devices.
Jobs thinks Flash is on its way out. And Kevin Lynch says, not so fast!
It seems to me that Apple and Adobe need each other. Even if they didn't, the millions of consumers who own iPhones and iPod touches or who plan to buy an iPad need them to work things out. Because we're the ones who are going to lose out if they don't.
Adobe's Flash is a program that delivers multimedia content such as games, videos and advertisements. Adobe says the majority of top Web sites include Flash content and that 75 percent of the video on the Web is delivered using Flash.
Flash has mostly been a PC experience, because Flash players either haven't been available on smartphones or weren't powerful enough to access much of the Flash content on the Web.
Until now, the lack of Flash on the iPhone hasn't been that big of a deal. When the iPhone debuted in 2007, the browsing experience was better than other mobile phones that it was hard to complain that it didn't support Flash. And because other smartphones also lacked Flash support, iPhone users didn't feel they were missing something.
I believe that's about to change. Through an initiative called the Open Screen Project, Adobe is revamping Flash to allow consumers to access almost all the multimedia content they can get on a PC by using their smartphone.
By the end of June, Adobe expects to have Flash version 10.1 available for a wide range of smartphones, including Palm's webOS phones, BlackBerrys and devices running Android and Windows Mobile. The only major smartphone operating system missing from the list is Apple's iPhone OS.
iPhone users may not have worried much that their phones can't simultaneously run more than one app like other smartphones [Android and Palm's WebOS]. But they soon may be unhappy that their phone can't access the videos and games that other phones will be able to.
iPad owners may be even more annoyed. One thing people will want to do with Apple's new tablet is access Web content, mainly since that was the reason for marketing. But if they can't watch a video on Hulu or play a game on Facebook, they may regret having bought an iPad instead of a netbook for $150 less.
While Apple enjoys a huge lead in applications available for the iPhone, Flash support could help its competitors level the playing field. With Flash, those devices could offer more games, videos and other content not available on the iPhone.
Jobs' view of Apple not needing to support Flash because it's on the way out is premature. While a new version of the language used to code Web pages does include Flash-like multimedia capabilities [HTML5], the standard for doing that is still being hashed out. With only a fraction of Web surfers using browsers that can translate the new language, few Web publishers are using them yet.
So Apple needs to support Flash in the iPhone OS — or risk losing customers to other platforms that do.
But most of all, iPhone OS users need Apple to quit smoking the crackpipe, because consumers will be missing out until they do.
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