i personally don't like flash. i think adobe has done a poor job of managing it, and that they are a bad steward of what has become the de facto multimedia platform of the web. based on his actions, it's possible to assume that steven p. jobs feels the same way.
flash is very entrenched on the desktop, but it has yet to gain much of a foothold in the mobile world. by making the iphone a great big hairy obstacle to adoption, jobs just might derail a mobile future that is similarly dominated by flash. personally, i hope he succeeds!
That was my point. It is about whether you get to operate your phone the way you want. It is about the percentage of existing and future innovation you will be able to access. Without this the value of the platform will deteriorate.
> i personally don't like flash.
So you think you or Steve Jobs should get to decide if anyone else can use it. What sort of totalitarian utopia do you have in mind?
flash has always been a terrible experience on the mac. It sucks up ridiculous amounts of CPU, far worse than on Windows. Given the iPhones limited CPU, it would like be even worse there.
By not giving in to adobe now, jobs is holding out for faster, better alternatives to emerge.
I don't agree that it is a good idea to let him decide what you are allowed to run on 'your' phone.
> By not giving in to adobe now, jobs is holding out for faster, better alternatives to emerge.
'But he is benign dictator so it's OK'.
Why not let the customers choose? What if he started doing that with your computer with other plugins, platforms and standards? Maybe they could start to decide that other standards are no good and ban them too. Why not ban mp3's or divX? Where does it stop?
If and when jobs retires and the reality distortion field starts to wear off people are going to see this for what it really is.
and no, jobs won't be respected any less after he's gone. apple is the only major tech company ever to be near death for years and then be brought back to the top of the heap. that's steve jobs' work, and it makes him a unique individual among unique individuals.
This couldn't be more wrong. Hacker News allows anyone to sign up and submit pretty much any article they want. Then people vote on what gets to the front page. This is in fact an example of democracy in action.
> democracy leads to mediocrity, every time.
Your true colours are revealed. Why not also 'Freedom is slavery'... Look it up.
> and no, jobs won't be respected any less after he's gone.
We where talking about apple and the future of one of their products. You seem to be more interested in jobs. Enough said.
flash has always been a terrible experience on the mac. It sucks up ridiculous amounts of CPU, far worse than on Windows. Given the iPhones limited CPU, it would like be even worse there.
By not giving in to adobe now, jobs is holding out for faster, better alternatives to emerge.
Everyone else commenting seems to be pointing out the technical hurdles / problems with a flash installation, but they are ignoring the huge business problem with NOT implementing it: customers want it.
Eventually, phones are going to come along that allow free apps, your own music, flash, similar browsing experience, and a real keyboard... and smart people will start to switch back.
In other words, the technical hurdles here are less important than the business ones. This is Jobs trying to have his iron grip, but in the long run, I dont see it working out.
I think the massive innovation on the Internet is due to the fact that it's easy to see the code for everything (HTML, CSS, Javascript).
Flash (and Silverlight, etc.) are all attempts to hijack the Internet as we know it. They do offer a better experience, but at a cost (freedom, more code, less innovation, licensing fees, patents, higher costs).
Look at some of the awesome things going on with javascript+html5 - being able to do multitouch, canvas, video tag etc. That is the future, flash is likely to go the same way as Java applets IMHO
Who wants java applets on their iphone browser? not me thanks.
Not particularly no. The point is that new technologies come along all the time and if you they are going to ban anything they don't like they are going to miss out on a substantial proportion of interesting software.
> Who wants java applets on their iphone browser? not me thanks.
Me. Why not? I'd also like to able to run whatever the F* I like. Why should you or anyone else tell me what I can or can't run?