Comments on: The new UI wars: Why there’s no Flash on iPhone 2.0

By: Multi-Touch: Not the Future « Rip/Rowan

Multi-Touch: Not the Future « Rip/Rowan — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 13:27:15 +0000

[...] Not the Future 2008.10.21 riprowan Just read a great article about the future of Flash on the iPhone. At its core the article is dead-on: the issue with [...]

By: metal cash boxes

metal cash boxes — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 22:33:02 +0000

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By: Hennrik A. Hanson

Hennrik A. Hanson — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:22:00 +0000

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By: The case against Opera Mini on the iPhone « counternotions

The case against Opera Mini on the iPhone « counternotions — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:04:21 +0000

[...] the world’s first pervasive multi-touch UI platform, from Mac trackpads to iPhones to iPads. As we argued here two years ago, it would have been a mistake to allow Flash on the iPhone because it had no concept of [...]

By: Lensco.be | Blog | End of an era

Lensco.be | Blog | End of an era — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:23:53 +0000

[...] accelleration for CSS properties. It’s hard to overestimate what that means. As some bright folks have noted before, Apple’s RIA platform is WebKit, and the iPhone is the playground. The [...]

By: leslie

leslie — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:06:29 +0000

Nothing fails like success.

By: Kristopher

Kristopher — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:33:45 +0000

Every man is the builder of a temple called his body.

By: CS5 macht Flash-Anwendungen zu iPhone-Apps

CS5 macht Flash-Anwendungen zu iPhone-Apps — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:56:52 +0000

[...] zur ‘Flash-Thematik’ haben Seltenheitswert, beschäftigen sich jedoch vornehmlich mit Performance-Kritikpunkten. John Gruber kommentierte dazu einmal süffisant: The iPhone’s lack of Flash is a [...]

By: Hamranhansenhansen

Hamranhansenhansen — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:50:43 +0000

> I honestly think that Apple is suffering
> (as they long have) from ‘Not Invented Here’
> syndrome

I don’t think that is true at all. From Mach at the bottom to OpenGL on top they are happy to use good tech wherever they find it. Flash is not good tech.

> The argument that Flash breaks the multi-touch
> paradigm is hallow at best. The entire internet
> breaks that paradigm. Flash does no better or worse.

No, you are wrong. Flash a mouse cursor, and all of its interactivity is based on mouse over, mouse down, mouse out events. There is no way to code for multitouch in Flash because Flash does not know WTF multitouch is.

Developing for runtimes has many advantages. The disadvantage is you are at the mercy of what the runtime supports. FlashPlayer requires a PC, a mouse, a keyboard, and a screen with 800×600 pixels or greater. iPhone has none of these things.

The only reason you can see the Web on iPhone is that Apple created a multitouch UI for Safari. The Web apps you are running in MobileSafari think you are clicking a mouse button when you tap because MobileSafari is doing a translation. FlashPlayer would have to be taught to do this translation by Adobe.

> I just want it so that I can view 50% of the
> internet that utilize Flash in some way.

You have the problem backwards. It’s not that you need Flash to reveal the hidden movies, it’s that the website authors need to stop hiding the movies from you with Flash in the first place.

> Does Apple REALLY think they can bend everyone
> in the world to their will?

It isn’t Apple vs Flash, it’s MPEG-4 vs Flash. MPEG-4 is bigger than both Apple and Adobe. And it isn’t a battle of wills, it’s pure technical necessity.

On a mobile, you can playback 8 hours of MPEG-4 on a single charge if you use the built-in audio video decoder hardware. That’s why that hardware is there, same with iPods. If you use Flash instead to decode that same MPEG-4 video (which is what is going on with Flash today on the Web 99% of the time), all the video decoding will happen on the CPU and you will get 1 hour of battery life.

In other words, for the Web to go mobile, the video has to come out of the Flash wrapper and run directly on the hardware. This transition is already well under way. If you go to YouTube or even (Microsoft) MSNBC.com on a desktop you’ll see Flash, but on mobiles you’ll see MPEG-4.

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:50:04 +0000

I really enjoyed the article and the large majority of the comments.

My two cents:

The Adobe folks still have not figured out the technical problems with this and I think that is the largest stumbling block for getting Flash on the iPhone. Flash crashes my PC’s browser from time to time. I couldn’t imagine the havoc it would cause on the iPhone.

I honestly think that Apple is suffering (as they long have) from ‘Not Invented Here’ syndrom. The argument that Flash breaks the multi-touch paradigm is hallow at best. The entire internet breaks that paradigm. Flash does no better or worse.

I don’t really care to have flash as a replacement for the iPhone OS or desktop – I just want it so that I can view 50% of the internet that utilize Flash in some way. Does Apple REALLY think they can bend everyone in the world to their will?

Brian Chen on Wired wrote about this a while back:

“Flash would open a new door for application developers to get their software onto the iPhone: Just code them in Flash and put them on a web page. In so doing, Flash would divert business from the App Store, as well as enable publishers to distribute music, videos and movies that could compete with the iTunes Store.”

Honestly I think this has little to do with technology or ideology. It’s business. It’s Apple selling a device used to buy things from them (iTunes and App Store) rather than an phone or internet device. They are doing what they have always done and technology locking people.

This the reason they came this/close to failing before. And why something will have to give in the future.