Seit Apple vor zwei Jahren das iPhone auf den Markt brachte, herrscht zwischen Adobe und Apple eine Art Kriegszustand. Denn Apple weigert sich, Adobe Flash für seine mobilen Geräte zuzulassen. So kommt es denn, dass man als iPhonebesitzer statt eines munteren Filmchens oftmals lediglich einen blauen Würfel sieht.
Der Streit eskalierte, als Steven Jobs das iPad vorstellte – ohne Flash. Mich interessiert dieser Streit eigentlich nur am Rande. Ich bin kein Technik-Nerd. Diese hatten denn auch lautstark das Fehlen von Flash auf den Apple-Produkten beklagt.
Doch jetzt wird es interessant. Soeben hat Steven Jobs auf der Apple-Website eine ziemlich lange Begründung veröffentlicht, weshalb Apple weder heute noch morgen seine Produkte für Adobe Flash öffnen wird. In der Branche wird mit harten Bandagen gekämpft:
Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.
The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple’s mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. 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.
New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.
Das ist ein ziemlich vernichtendes Urteil für Adobe und bringt dem Unternehmen harte Zeiten. Wie sich der aktuelle Börsenkurs von Adobe verhält, kann man hier mitverfolgen.
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The problem with this discussion is, that Flash is only seen in the context of Apple’s own play zone area, rather than in the context of serious, enterprise level, web-applications coming from 2 man-years+ software projects, you know, stuff that really matters in business, government, healthcare, etc..
Of course Steve is right, that all Apple Apps can be done with HTML 5 and standard tools. But for me, this is not a claim for Apple’s openness, but just an example of the de facto limitations of Apple Apps (and their users?).
For instance, when Steven Jobs honors HTML 5 fitness for the bunch of me-too video enriched web-gimmicks, called Apps, he might be right in his corner. But for serious business applications, that go beyond the personal entertainment click-clack-hurry ego-area (and so far have never made it onto the iPhone), he would prove himself hopelessly wrong.
Me as a certified web developer successfully working since nine years in 3 worlds – J2EE, .NET and Flash -, I think that I am qualified enough, to claim, that HTML 5 alone will simply NOT provide the technology nor the tools nor (skilled) people nor experiences to do really highly interactive real-time stuff EFFICIENTLY in an enterprise service context. Of course, for students and new-comers that just do not known anything else than what is free in the market, HTML 5 is a major improvement – but – that’s it! HTML 5 just does not qualify for high performing, highly interactive Rich Internet Applications the way they can be built with Flash, Silverlight or JavaFX.
And when you go for instance for iPhone-like point and slide programming, you will have, even with HTML 5, to build on the proprietary Apple OS features the same (in transparent) way you would have to do with Flash technology.
Listen, I am not talking games and social fun-stuff here, but have applications in mind, many other companies, people and finally people like you and me still create value and earn money with. So when we allow Apple to ban Flash from the iPhone, we will allow Apple to ban business apps from the iPhone as well. Then this is not just about technology, but about how we will integrate business in our daily life – or not.
And forget that Flash will go away, when it’s banned from the iPhones. Flash is not a HTML 5 competitor. They are different things. Flash has its niche and community already. Flash had never a stake or a real revenue stream on mobiles. So for Flash, mobile did not matter so far which means, that Adobe is does not need to have it on the iPhone either. Independent of the mobile market, the Flash framework has dramatically evolved into a real ecosystem that is MUCH, MUCH more than just the Flash Player we are currently talking about. The Flash Framework has earned money and market shares and still provides a platform where people can make money, where HTML 5 will have a long way to go (The team developing HTML5 doesn’t even expect it to receive the first level of recommendation from the World Wide Web Consortium (the group that governs international Web standards,) until 2012. According to them, the third and final maturity recommendation likely won’t occur until 2022….).
Besides this timeline constraint, HTML 5 it is not built for really sophisticated, complex and (bandwidth optimized) rich web-applications and will never be.
On the other side, I am personally convinced, that the Flash Framework (with Silverlight and JavaFX on its heels), is still the most professional, most stable, most shared, public accepted, reasonably priced rich internet application framework. This is especially true now, when corporations have to ensure continuity, performance and a most appealing user experience, when moving their core applications from the personal desktop to the virtual could. No doubt, the cloud will happen with home working and more mobility. But Business will not care about whether your iPhone might become incompatible with what the company needs.
So – in essence – fighting for Flash on the iPhone ensures your long-term business compatibility. Otherwise you will have either two devices, a non iPhone device or you will have to fit against your reputation of an iPhone decorated Fun boy and non-serious chatterbox or even worse, to be compared with one of those “creatives” that just own an iPhone for dressing themselves up with an decent aura of iPhone impersonated technology geekness, that in essence, is so reduced, that even your Grandma can join and fill her lonely hours with a choice of 50000 apps, that will make Steven rich, Grandma tired but will never earn her a dime in return.
With Flash on the iPhone, at least you, young guy will be enabled to do something really useful. When not – go and play.
@René Baron
Brilliant post!