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Apple looks ahead by ditching Flash
Farhad Manjoo
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TEXT OF COMMENTARY
Kai Ryssdal: Not even mighty Apple could withstand the selling on Wall Street today. Shares of the music and gadget company gave up 3.6 percent this afternoon. Although it's a pretty safe bet that they will pop right back up as the release date for the iPad draws near.
But even Apple's latest toy isn't without controversy. Many of its hugely popular devices -- the iPhone, the iPod and the soon to be released iPad -- they don't run Flash. That's a Web tool that lets you run almost every bit of animation you see online -- videos, games, ads, all that stuff. Not using Flash does seem counter-productive. I mean, why would Apple want to make it harder to use the Internet, right? Commentator Farhad Manjoo has a couple of ideas on that.
FARHAD MANJOO: What was Steve Jobs thinking? Eight-five of the top 100 most popular sites use Flash to display content like videos or games or slideshows. If you go to those sites with the iPad, you're likely to see an error icon instead.
One explanation? Apple is just being smug, which is nothing new for Apple. Like the iPhone before it, the iPad will be completely locked down. Meaning it won't run any programs that Apple doesn't approve of. And Apple has said that Flash is riddled with errors. In other words, Steve Jobs isn't going to ruin his pristine machine just so you can watch Hulu.
But Apple could also be making a wise bet about the future of the Web. Many Web browsers are adopting a new standard to make Web sites interactive -- HTML5. That's the code that powers the Web, and the new version will allow sites to play videos without the need for any pesky plug ins. Several huge video sites -- including YouTube -- have embraced it. What's more, HTML5 video works just fine on the iPhone, and it'll work on the iPad too.
Jobs has a track record of knowing when technologies are on the way out. When Apple launched the iMac in 1998, it didn't include a floppy drive. The tech press cried foul. How could a computer not include a floppy? Jobs predicted we'd use the Internet to move our data instead. And he was right.
Steve Jobs is making the same kind of prediction now. He's guessing Web companies are going to ditch Flash in favor of HTML5. And if the iPad's a hit, Web sites will feel the push to become iPad compatible anyway. In the end, Apple wins: The company gets to keep its rivals' technology away from the iPad, and owners won't see all those error icons. So maybe Steve Jobs isn't that crazy after all -- just crazy like a fox.
RYSSDAL: Farhad Manjoo covers technology for Slate.
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Please descend from your high horse, Mr. Manjoo. While Flash is not the be-all-end-all of web technology, it unquestionably changed the face of the internet and culture as a whole through YouTube and similar Web 2.0 sites, and deserves a noteworthy share of the 2006 TIME Person of the Year.
Furthermore, your floppy analogy is somewhat inappropriate; users could choose to add a floppy drive to their computer if they chose (and many did), while to add Flash to an iPhone is likely a crime (under the DMCA). At least you didn't go so far as to credit Steve Jobs for killing the floppy, as it's true killer was the soaring capacities of hard drives, plummeting prices of CD-Rs, and networked storage.
Finally, from the web developer's perspective, an uninformed "develop for iPhone/iPad" statement is a phenomenal waste of time, effort, and money. Looking at browser market shares as a whole, iPhone/iPod Touch account for less than 1% of overall browser hits (according to Netmarketshare). Even within the mobile market, it is slighty under the leader (Opera at 26%) with about 22% of the market. So while mucking about to get a page to show perfectly in iWorld, you neglect the most common mobile browser, and still only reward less than a quarter of mobile surfers.
Its funny how people interpret things. I really do not think Steve Jobs cares about what technology is used he just wants it to work right. Flash is not going any where any time soon. All the things that make Flash annoying will now be even easier for websites developers with HTML 5. Its not Flash that is the problem its how its used. I think this is good for Adobe because they need the competition.
after watching charlie rose covering the ipad, there are other reasons why flash deserves to be nixed. the ipad is single tasking and built for speed. one can't release a product that depends on 3rd party buggy, bloated and ever taxing flash component. I have never like flash ever since macromedia exploited it's use to track user's viewing habits. I routinely disable flash operation in firefox as an option. adobe too, has abused their "welcome" as it has become too aggravating to find a document one wants to utilize requires yet another version upgrade. at some points it seems we have gone backwards in using computer formats for the free form distribution of information. it has gotten so annoying, that it almost seems an organization just might announce a format for universal data interchange that all can read - how about American Standard for Code Information Interchange - ASCII.
Don't all the web developers find it kind of frustrating to have to develop code to accommodate all the different web browsers cropping up that just don't want to play well with others (of course, I'm talking about Safari)? Jobs is on a monopolistic warpath, and kudos to him, because the Apple marketing machine has somehow convinced us all that we should cater to him and his needs, not the other way around (15% market share much?).
The sooner we abandon Flash as the be-all end-all interactive and Web gew-gaw, the safer and swifter the Web will be. Apple ("Think Different") may be legitimizing a grass roots rejection of Adobe's stranglehold, closed source, bug and security vulnerability ridden solutions. Not that Apple is a saint, either.
I think the explanation is very simple. Flash is a platform that allows you to create software. Apple controls all the software that is run on their newer devices and by allowing flash, end users can simply navigate to a web site that hosts the application they want to use and use it. It's the same reason they held back the C64 compiler app, etc...
Hulu is blocked from all smartphones so that is not a relevant argument for Flash on the iPhone OS based iPad, but your argument about the number of other sites which contain Flash is true. It is not just the major sites, there are millions of sites which use Flash based navigation or slideshows. Ignoring that fact makes the web experience on the iPhone and now the iPad less than the magical experience that their marketing would have you believe. As an iPhone owner from day one, I have often been disappointed by the lack of Flash. Four years later we are being told that one day everything will be based on HTML5? Ignoring my years of experience with the difficulties of implementing Javascript as a Web developer, I still have to ask when exactly are all the Flash based sites going to magically disappear? Smart like a Fox? No, just stubborn in his narrow view of the Web.
Gregoy Lewis is absolutely correct in his assessment. Flash is so much more than just a video player. flash is an application platform, and it's a very good one at that. HTML 5 is only a standard for displaying content. Web developers can combine HTML 5 with javascript to create an application, but javascript is incredibly unwieldy and slow. Of all of the programming languages I use to develop software, javascript is my least favorite. In fact javascript is so unwieldy that for any application that needs strong client side support I do what I can to develop the client in flash or Silverlight. This is the real reason Job dislikes flash. flash like the ipad is a platform, but flash is an open platform. Anyone can develop for flash. The ipad is a closed platform. You may only develop for the ipad if you get apple's blessing. Allowing flash on the ipad threatens apple's closed platform, and Job's can't abide any software running on his platform that he hasn't received apple's blessing.
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