Many people wonder why their beloved iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads (iDevices) don’t support Flash. People often cite this lacking feature as a reason to avoid Apple mobile products. Today, Steve Jobs published an open letter arguing Apple’s case.
Here’s the TL;DR of what he had to say:
- Adobe’s Flash is a proprietary and closed platform. Apple’s pushing HTML5, which is an open web standard not owned by Apple.
- Most video on the web is actually in a format viewable by iDevices, H.264. Yes, you can’t play Flash-based games, but games from the app store are better anyway.
- Flash is the number one cause for Mac crashes, is full of security holes, and has never performed well on a mobile device.
- Most Flash video drains battery life at almost double the rate of H.264.
- Flash was designed for mice, not touch devices.
- Allowing developers to use Flash for mobile app development means apps created for the lowest common denominator, rather than apps created to maximize the capabilities of iDevices.
Reading this letter made a whole lot of sense to me. I’m a power user. I own both a Mac and a PC. I know firsthand that Flash makes my Macbook fan spin like a tornado and my PC browser crash every day. I couldn’t care less about what format my web videos play in if they load fast, look good, and don’t slow down my device. Yes, it sucks that I can’t play the latest fad flash game on my iDevice, but rare is the case that I run out of things to do on my mobile that I clamor for it.
I don’t have an allegiance to either company; I just want the day to come where I can go to a restaurant website and not have my browser crash.