So, the war of words between Apple and Adobe shows no sign of slowing with the latest haymaker thrown by Steve Jobs with regards to Flash support on iPods, iPhones & iPads.
The overall message of the post titled Thoughts on Flash is that Flash support is never coming to Apple mobile devices. Further to this Apple have also blocked use of Adobe Flash/Air development tools for creating applications that can be exported to run on all types of smart phones.
Much of this latest post seems designed to answer comments made by Adobe Chief Executive Shantanu Narayen's [http://www.9to5mac.com/adobe-apple-flash-war] made initially at the Goldman Sachs technology conference in February (2010).
HTML5 vs. Flash or Jobs vs. Narayen
The move to prevent cross platform phone development with adobe tools certainly seemed like sour grapes on Apple's part and a move to protect their app store revenues and force developers to build applications for iPhone and other platforms independently. With the popularity of the iPhone applications this could draw more developers away from other platforms ensuring that the Apple device remains the dominant market for mobile applications.
But, that said, Jobs makes some good points in his article. Flash apparently does not run well on mobile devices and reduces battery life to around 5 hours. It is also not designed for multi touch and causes problems there. Both of these points seem somewhat moot as the web was not designed for multi touch and they got around that pretty well and it is not as if people spend the whole time looking at flash sites on their iPhone so the affects on battery life are limiting.
Narayen talks of Flash video being used widely across the web and the importance of flash for video playback and rich web applications. Jobs counters by stating support for HTML5, Javascript, AJAX and other open web standards that will work across all mobile devices.
R.I.P. Flash?
This is certainly not good for Flash but is it a death knell for the technology? Well, it is hard to tell, iPhones are popular and it would certainly be useful if there was some flash support. Developers are now also forced to choose between developing for iPhones or for all other smartphones. Those odds may seem tipped in Apple's favour but the figures don't really work out well for Jobs and co.
The most popular smartphone in the US is still the Blackberry and Nokia still holds around half the market. In comparison, Apple hardly registers. Flash will be supported on Android and other mobile devices before 2010 is out and many of the performance issues will fall away with the next generation of mobile processors.
Winners & Losers
Well, as ever and as with HD-DVD vs. Bluray, VHS vs. Betamax and other format wars the ultimate winner should be the consumer as you can bet your hat Adobe are going to be working hard to bring a great flash experience to other mobile devices. You may end up getting burnt if you are an early adopter or pledge to much support to one device or another.
Apple is betting a lot on HTML5 which will not be fully specified till 2012 and not rolled out till 2022. There are elements of HTML 5 that are being released bit by bit but support at the moment does not compare with Flash support when you factor in the PC market so it is hard to see who will come out on top here. There is nothing to stop competing devices from supporting HTML 5 and Flash.
What do you think?
I have tried to write this article without my nown anti flash rhetoric creeping (well, maybe just a little) but who will win here is hard to foresee. Will Adobe deliver a killer flash experience on mobile devices? Will Apple roll over and add flash support to the iPhone 5g? Will flash slowly twitch and die as other open standards provide similar functionality?
At the very least, it is fun to watch these two titans bicker like a couple of kids in the school yard and as with any such struggle, the winner should end up being the consumer so vote with your wallets people.
If you have any input or opinions we would love to hear from you.
