Open letter from a Mac-head
Dear Steve,
After working on Windows PCs for over 15 years, I switched to Mac about 6 years ago. I was sick and tired of spending more time keeping my system up and running than being creative. I remember it well. I actually borrowed a G5 to test both Mac and Windows head to head… and I never looked back. I immediately fell in love with OS X and the simplicity of using a Mac. Everything just worked and I could finally be creative again without worrying about crashes or driver conflicts. It wasn’t long before every single PC in the house was replaced by a Mac. I got a G5 to work on, bought a Power Book for work on the road, an iMac for my girlfriend and even an eMac for my mom.
When you announced the iPhone, I had my credit card in my hand somewhere halfway through your presentation. Sadly you only released it in the US at first and so I had to wait a little bit. I’m not ashamed to say that I “imported” one and hacked it so I could use it in Europe. You did a fantastic job with the iPhone and you truly changed the mobile industry. I could even live with the fact that the first version did not have the Flash plugin in the mobile Safari browser. I didn’t think I would, but I was standing in line the day you launched the iPhone 3G in Belgium and yes… I was also in waiting in line the day you launched the iPhone 3GS.
It was definitely harder to swallow that you still didn’t allow Flash on the 3GS. I totally found it plausible that the original iPhone’s CPU was struggling with Flash content but you said that the 3GS was a lot faster than the original iPhone. Add to that that Flash runs just fine on Android, WebOS, WinMo and Symbian smartphones… Together with the Open Screen Project partners, Adobe is working very hard on making sure that Flash Player 10.1 runs smoothly on these devices.
Yesterday, you announced the iPad. I recently bought an HP TouchSmart TX2 tablet (running Windows 7, which allows me to install both Flash Player, AIR and any other plugin) because you are right. There is room for something between the iPhone and my MacBook Pro. There definitely is room for a tablet to browse the web, play games, watch movies or read books on. However… this time you failed to enthuse me.
While the iPad’s form factor seems spot on, the limited operating system isn’t. When you demonstrated the web browser, it was very obvious that the browser did not support Flash (or any other plugins). When you showed the New York Times website, the video player was missing and a big missing plugin icon showed up on screen. Surely this is not the experience you wanted to demonstrate. You said you can browse the full web on the iPad but it clearly isn’t the full web… Isn’t that exactly why you would use a beautiful device like this? To watch video on sites like Facebook, CNN, ESPN, ABC, Fox, Hulu, MSNBC, Epix, … while you’re on the road? But it’s not just about video. What about those hundreds –maybe thousands– of sites that rely on advertisers to pay their bills? Sure… web ads can be really annoying but the reality is that advertisers like to use Flash for their ads. And what about games? Millions of people play Flash games on sites like Facebook, Miniclip, Kongregate and Disney every single day. Flash is a big part of the web today and when you promise “the best way to experience the web” I expect it to be the full web and not the crippled version you demonstrated on stage yesterday.
I’m sure Adobe would welcome you with open arms if you decided to join the Open Screen Project and help us to build an optimized version of Flash Player for the iPad. Some of our OSP partners have already demonstrated full HD 1080P Flash Video on a netbook so I see no reason why it wouldn’t work on the iPad.
I’m sorry to say that even though I am a Mac-head, I won’t be standing in line to get an iPad if I can’t browse the full web on it.
Serge
To anyone reading this: Make sure you blog your thoughts and/or leave a comment.
Update: Also read Ralph Hauwert’s and Mike Chambers’ post.
36 Comments
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I agree that not having plugin architecture in the browser is crazy. HTML5 isn’t going to replace Unity content for example.
Ive been wanting to make the switch to Mac from windows for a while now, but somehow Ive been afraid to do it and the prices scare me alot too. Yesterday when the iPad was announced I saw it as a gateway to finally make the conversion, but due to your post Im in doubt again :-) Strong post tho, its something regular people like me would never think about, thank god there are people like you who can warn us about such things.
this is the end of apple being our friend. and you forgot to mention maemo :)
The feeling you have today is the same feeling I had when they introduced the iPhone.
And I could not get myself to replace my BlackBerry for a device that was much more limited just because it was shiny and from Apple.
And now that I think of it… I suffered
the same disappointment when I got my AppleTV.
A wonderful device (hardware) but the software was so locked down it was practically a useless device.
The hardware is always amazing,
but they always lock down the software as much as they can. I like my iPod, since I only need it to play music… I have an iPhone (someone gave it to me) but because of it’s limitations it’s useless to me.
I think they will have to open up,
or their reign might end some day.
Well said.
Personally, I’ve always disliked Apple machines and have found them to be no less stable that a properly configured Windows or Linux box. I’ve never enjoyed their aesthetic. I can do without the smug attitude their products tend to bring out in otherwise good-natured people.
With that said – I do have much respect for what Apple has done to drive things forward in terms of both hardware and operating systems. I do not believe my OS of choice (Windows 7) would be what it is without Mac OSX. I certainly wouldn’t have my awesome little Droid without the iPhone making the scene and paving the way for such devices. Apple’s contribution to projects like WebKit and various standards bodies over the years is also admirable.
It’s really too bad that with all the good they have done and could be doing, that they choose to let zealotry and greed cloud better judgement in regard to the Flash Player.
Apple can’t lose me as a customer… but they can certainly lose my respect.
Can’t agree more.
Steve is playing a dangerous game here. He has shown beatiful piece of hardware and a nice concept. However there isn’t anything that can’t be replicated by another hw vendor who would implement tablet with similar form factor based on much more open Android OS.
I hope that someone is going to do it quickly and when it happens – I will be the first in line for purchase.
Totally agree with you, Serge.
Hope Apple will change theirs mind.
Spot on Serge! The same thoughts & disappointments here, there’s no excuse to ban the Flash player on such a device. I keep asking myself, what’s the real reason behind all of this? Could it possibly be that Apple is more evil than Microsoft? For sure, Apple is getting way too greedy! iBooks store? c’mon!
The first thing i’m going to do is buy a HP Slate running Windows 7. :-o
When making a case for flash on the iPhone / iPad please stop using the “Video” excuse … we all know, deep inside, that between now and 6 months most content providers will switch to html5 video. Firefox cannot sustain their stubborn block of h.264 for long and with drm being less of an issue it is a no brainer for most to just switch from using a now limited supported format like flash to a more widely supported and open spec.
Flash sites however remain unsupported, that is a shame but on the other hand …. what 100% flash site have you been visiting lately you could not live without? ……. i can name none! i can live without all the flash banners doh! On my mac i’m using click4flash and i hardly ever ever ever have to enable some flash element on a page to enjoy the web. Actually, browsing is a lot faster without …
Air, yes, Air … it would be awesome to create dedicated apps in Flash that work on the iPhone / iPad … oh wait, that will be possible … without all the drawbacks of a dynamically executed language on a “embedded” device ….. The solution Adobe found is, in my view, the most logical one. Compile that stuff into a native format for the device… i would not like to have it any other way!
So i think the choices made are the right ones. When i want to view that latest “band” or “Photography” website that is 100% flash …. i’ll make the walk to my Macbook… otherwise i will enjoy my fast browsing experience with less crash possibilities on my iPhone / iPad …..
my two cents
@Zimmen: See http://www.webkitchen.be/2009/12/11/the-power-of-the-flash-platform-part-4-online-gaming/ It’s not just about video.
@Zimmen
“Air, yes, Air … it would be awesome to create dedicated apps in Flash that work on the iPhone / iPad”
What about osx and windows? Would be really sweet to use air and go really cross platform. Compiling is a workaround, shouldn’t be necessary.
I see this from another angle. As the designer, manufacturer and marketer of the product, Apple can do as they please with this device. They do not have to include anything on the device that they do not want, bar the stuff that would make it un-marketable.
At some point, Apple have decided that they do not want browser plugins on the iPhone or iPad (which doesn’t just stop at Flash), and believe that open technologies such as Javascript and HTML will suffice.
To be honest, in the two years I’ve had my iPhone, I don’t think I’ve missed Flash (or any other plugin) once.
As a flash developer, i have to agree with you.
But from a different perspective, i think open points are basically two:
- One is App Store; Flash is a huge competitor.
- The other one is Apple control over his platform; explaining myself: there is no need to embrace a non-open format, even if it is a quasi-standard on web.
I’m not really into Adobe/Apple relations, but i think that there should be a sort of “guarantee” that Adobe will open spread his format to make it a standard. Moving in that direction, there will be no need of FP plugin and Adobe could rise profits with its top-class tools for development.
Probably now it’s the time to think about this.
I am so pissed that Flash is not on this device, I can’t even talk about it. The iphone is one thing, but this could clearly handle it. I use a Mac Book Pro for my dev. work w/Flash…I love it. But now, it feels like I’m driving my Toyota to my job at Ford…I put it on ebay this morning. I’m done with Apple.
I’m not buying an iPad, but the non-presence of flash would not be any reason not to.
Flash is not the whole future of the web – if I had my way it wouldn’t be any part of it. I’d really rather apple concentrated on things that are actually important, such as multi-tasking, or adding a camera and video calling, than spend time on platform that is slowly drifting into the past.
We need to get Flash 10.1 out and let consumers decide.
When every smartphone competitor (Palm, Blackberry, Android) has the real Flash, and iPhones and iPads don’t, we’ll see if customers like having Flash or not on their smartphones.
My guess is Apple will be forced to allow Flash – but maybe I’m wrong. Let the games begin…
When is this happening? Any dates yet?
If you can’t choose the browser is not a computer
Don’t you think you overrate the importance of Flash on the web?
The reality simply is, the iPhone doesn’t support Flash since 2007, but still they sold about 60 million phones in just 2 years. This shows one thing: people apparently don’t need Flash.
Why is Flash not needed for a great web experience? Because it’s mostly used for ‘secondary’ content, like banners, animations, advertisement, videos, games and other time-killers or optical enhancements that you can either live without or find an app in the app store for it. Primary content is usually Flash-free, because it’s best practise not to make it dependent on a plugin. So it’s accessible even on the iPhone.
Banner animations in Flash have almost disappeared, you can do it in Javascript and have less hassle with embedding it. Same with a lot of other things. Only video is still a problem, I admit. But I’m sure if all browsers would support a common HTML5 video codec, Flash could disappear from YouTube etc. fairly quickly.
I understand completely why Apple would resist including Flash support on their mobile devices. It’s simply the smartest technical and business decision. There is no way to guarantee consistency of a user experience unless Apple exerts control over what runtimes can be installed (.NET and Silverlight don’t run on iPad/iPhone either).
Historically, Flash runtimes have been leaky memory hogs and not perform optimally due to being an interpreted quasi object oriented environment. This has gotten better recently, but it is still a risk that offers very little reward, since due to the reduced form factor the same Flash apps would not operate the same anyway (at least on iPhone).
Also, I agree with Francesco. The only way really that Adobe can complain is if Flash was truly a completely open standard with a completely open format–on the client side and the server. Apple is not in the business of ensuring Adobe’s survival in the new mobile universe.
I’m not an Apple fan, but as a web developer, I’m glad Apple is breaking the Internet’s dependency on Flash. With html5 and css3, Flash is no longer needed as a crutch.
I don’t know if I would ever buy an iPad due to the closed nature of Apple’s products, but I do appreciate that they are contributing to web standards and allow web developers to create native-looking web apps using those standards.
I would argue Flash is probably the best cross platform development experience on the web and not having it on Apple products is insane.
“open Android OS” I would rather be in that line any day! lets hope its sooner rather than later :)
Two years of living with my iPhone and I’ve not missed flash – I’m seeing more and more clients asking specifically not to have flash pieces in their websites so they render on the iPhone. One such site was rebuilt from scratch once the CEO tried to view it on his new iPhone and it didn’t render correctly. I doubt this an isolated case too. Flash has been horribly abused over the years, usually by designers who knew no better, skip intros, entire flash sites, flash where it’s simply not needed – I for one am glad to seeing it being ousted in places and standards (loose ones) are begininning to win. I’m sure others will follow YouTube, this is only the beginning.
Bob.
While reading blog comments on the subject all over the web, I’m getting lost for words… I really really really don’t understand how you could support HTML5 like this, unless you happen to be an HTML/CSS/javascript developer or/and a Mac-head. HTML5 is good, but that’s no reason to ban Flash technology.
I am one of those guys who saw Netscape going down, saw Real Player losing it’s market share, saw Windows Media Player killing mostly all of its competitors (up until iTunes/iPod showed up), … I was a Windows user. Was it a coincidence that I switched to a Mac? Of course not.
Rightly so, these actions eventually led to many antitrust cases which found that Microsoft had abused its monopoly on operating systems to unfairly dominate the market and eliminate competition.
Apple is doing exactly the same things, and yet, people are completely blinded for whatever reason.
- Is it because you hate ad’s? Well, consider what will happen if the world uses HTML5… don’t you think ad’s will be developed in HTML5 as well? How are you going to block them in the future without blocking the entire webpage? Flash is a plugin, it’s easy to block given it’s only a plugin. But if Apple succeeds, the end-result is probably worse than it is now.
- Do you hate Flash intro’s? Yes I hate them as well, but do I hate the h264 codec, because someone made a stupid video with it?
- I can go on for hours, but that’s not the point. It’s very clear to me that this is more about politics than anything else. Apple is balancing on a thin legal line here, the only difference with Microsoft is that Apple does it with a new platform, the iPhone OS. The choice was never there, so they have the power to control it completely. That makes me sick. I’ve said it once and I will say it again, Apple is getting way too greedy… on the long term, this could turn around against them.
I’m, like usual, not following all fanboy shizzle to full extend, so I might be missing a point .. but what about this post: http://9to5mac.com/apple-flash-ipad-3954934055 ?
@Zimmen and others I kind of think it’s a bit ignorant (with full respect to you guys, don’t get me wrong) to defend today’s releases with future evolutions. Sure, html 5 might change things .. truth is we’re not there yet, and looking into the future is of not much value. You know what they say about tech predictions: overestimated on short term, under on the long term. So I really can’s see why you would release something today that doesn’t support (at least) todays technology.
My 5 cents.
Payback perhaps for late to the game development for the Adobe Creative Suite?
Flash should never have become a video wrapper, and there is enough troublesome content from Flash, that a lot of people are glad for it NOT to be there (pop up ads? really?)
But if you are moving to 64 bit and such, do you wait around for Adobe and their steamer trunks of 30 year old baggage to show up, or do you simply head out on your own?
Adobe needs to adjust their own priorities; it isn’t just Apple (or Linux) behind the hate for Flash that is out there, it is that Flash badly needs some improvement. The business model for Adobe is selling the Software and some training- if you want to keep that market, improve the software and get it out on time, cross platform. Or someone will try to work around it themselves, because they cannot wait.
Forget about the iPad. The customer will make his decision if it’s a new web experience or not.
HTML5, CCS3 and jQuery will build a very strong framework. It will help us to make webdesign more accessible and user-friendly than it is nowadays. In this point the new framework will replace Flash.
But there still will be content (e.g. e-learning units etc.) that require Flash. And for that need Flash will be need, even on iPads.
Flash isnt on the iPad, so instead of slamming Apple for limiting choice, we should join apple in slamming flash? This logic seems flawed to me.
Steve Jobs wants to lock down the internet and control it. He has been successful on the iPhone, iPhone users and developers are COMPLETELY under his personal control. App developers cannot build anything without his permission, and users cannot view anything unless he allows it. The same will be true on the iPad. This is all under the guise of “consistent user experience”.
I’m all for choice. I’m glad the Mac OS exists so I can choose Windows 7 instead of being forced to use it, and I can tell MS to screw off if I decide they are no good and move to Mac…and vice versa. Without choice…innovation and freedom go out the window!
Flash became the preferred audio and video wrapper, simply because the others (MediaPlayer, QuickTime, Real, etc.) were too busy using their plug-ins and players as portals and carriers for other business. Flash just wrapped it, saved it, and showed it. Now, 10 years later, browsers take another turn on audio and video. Flash is not sacred in this area.
In the area of interactive content, Flash proved to be both excellent and dangerous. From simple animated navigation to full-blown games, Flash is brilliant. But Apple decided that the risk of endangering the platform (leaks, viruses, slow performance, crashes) are too high, and so did Mozilla recently with their mobile version of Firefox.
The world is still waiting for a proper standard for drawings, animations, 3D, and advanced interaction. Flash is popular, but not a standard. SVG is a standard but not popular (yet). HTML5 and CSS3 will be able to catch up with some Flash-like features, which is just a matter of time. But it’s not an equivalent of Flash.
Personally, I think Adobe depends too much on Flash. It should have remained a simple design and animation thing. But it has become a maze with many levels and areas. A platform, with too much demands for mobile CPU’s and too many opportunities for malicious developers…
Adobe thrived by making graphical processes easy and cheap. It pushed many systems and proprietary techniques out of business, because it turned a whole industry into a simple and easy trade. Nowadays, Adobe is the big brand with massive products being pushed aside. Time for reflection ?
Two interesting articles:
http://9to5mac.com/apple-flash-ipad-3954934055
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2418
(Adobe founder doesn’t bother not having Flash on his iPhone…)
Some Flash sites (especially Flex) I do want, but resource and battery consuming animations I do NOT want. In the end, I’d like to choose.
As I already mentioned on Twitter, I do have some suggestions in my blog. In summary: keep up the CS5 iPhone work, expand it to Flex (a la OpenPlug) and learn from GWT.
More in my blog-topic “Bashing or Flashing the iPad” at
http://blog.digitalneurosurgeon.com/?p=646
Pieter
I can see Apple’s reasoning for not allowing Flash on their precious iPad/iPhone:
1) Performance: Yes, I know 10.1 will use 50% less memory. But that’s only if the people developing Flash content know what they’re doing, follow best practices and exercise careful memory management. In my experience, that’s rarely the case.
2) Control: Why allow people to play free games & videos right from the browser when the same developers/content providers could feasibly build specialized apps to sell them on the App Store? That way Apple can get in on 30% of the proceeds, or if the apps are given away for free, Apple can still maintain editorial/quality control on what gets on.
For now, Adobe’s got the public’s support on the iPad issue. People want their embedded videoplayers & casual games to be allowed on their mobile internet devices.
However, this won’t last. Steve Jobs is already making the case that Flash is buggy & memory-leak prone (in which he’d be right), and with HTML5 taking off, it won’t be long until the major content sites walk away from Flash. Youtube is already experimenting with HTML5, and they’ve already got their native iPhone/iPad app.
Adobe has to make a serious effort to get rid of the “Flash = buggy & slow” image, and the only way is to trash the existing flash player and rewrite it from bottom up to take advantage of the latest technological developments. I’m talking 64 bit support, hardware acceleration (on ALL platforms, not just Windows), multi-threading, etc… or else I’m afraid the entire Flash platform will be dead in the water in less than 5 years. If it even takes that long.
That or they need to look beyond the Flash Player and, like Unity, focus more on allowing developers to craft native applications, with the browser plugin as a nice extra, rather than the main goal.
Adobe: The tools are brilliant, the platform, er… not so much.
Steve Jobs probably hates Flash for several different reasons, but the fact remains that the Flash plugin, on the Mac, is a crappy product.
On my 8-core Mac Pro I don’t mind so much that it uses an unreasonable amount of CPU, but I do mind that crashes Safari on a daily basis. Thank you, ClickToFlash, for giving me my browser back.
As for Flash on the iPad – if it’s just Apple being ornery, while the rest of the world works together in harmony on the “Open Screen Project”, why did Mozilla ship Firefox for the Nokia N900 on Thursday with plugins disabled because of “performance problems using Adobe Flash”?
I have a two year old MacBook and running Flash is always an inferior experience. The fans start going, the machine bogs down, the browser often crashes. Instead of whining how about making Flash work as well on the Mac as it does on the PC, because at the moment it simply doesn’t.
And if the “limited operating system” of the iPad is really the massive problem you think it is, presumably no-one will buy it, it’ll get cancelled, and some other hardware manufacturer will come out with something that you might prefer.
It’s definitely strange that Apple is ignoring Flash as it becomes more and more important in today’s world. I am not really an Flash lover myself but I still find it curious that Apple shows this kind of dominant behaviour.
I totally agree with this post. Apple makes some nice computers, and although the price is worth it from an aesthetic and quality point of view, the restrictions imposed by the software are simply too serious to ignore.
I don’t want some company to control what I can or cant view online. And if they offer no choice, then they themselves become no choice to me, as a consumer and as a professional.
I don’t use Apple products, but I still find their move not to support Flash annoying and expensive for everyone. And here is why:
To take for example banner production. Roughly 50 to 70% of every banner commissioned is spent on creating an animated gif alternative that will be viewed by less than 5% of the visitors that don’t support Flash. That is a very expensive small group, but that is the price you pay if you want to reach everyone and avoid the Blue Brick Of Omission.
Sites such as YouTube and Vimeo face exactly the same problem. They can’t just outright stop using Flash because that would alienate the majority of their visitors. (It will take years before html5 is widely adopted). But in order to reach that small percentage of iPhone (and soon iPad) users, their sites need to be duplicated. Either by creating apps that only function on the iPhone specific platform or use a technology such as HTML5 which is promising, but not yet ready for prime time.
And having to maintain two or three different technologies just to serve up the same content is not only expensive, it also eats up time that would otherwise be used for either innovating or creating better content. We have been through this during the browser wars and I don’t really want to go through it again.