Jobs vs. Flash: The Battle Begins
Ah, what can you say about Steve Jobs? Visionary, genius, rabblerouser, hell some folks would describe him as bats**t crazy. However you choose to describe him, one things for sure, he’s entertaining as all get out. With the unveiling of the tragically named iPad Jobs has once again thrust himself into the spotlight. Not for the gadget, but for his very public criticism of Adobe Flash.
Since the live demonstration of the iPad, where he inadvertently navigated to a page that utilized Flash, Jobs has been on the war path, calling the popular multimedia platform “buggy and slow” while dubbing Adobe “lazy”.
They are lazy,” said Jobs. “They have the potential to do interesting things but they refuse to do it,” he said. “Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy… Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash…The world is moving to HTML5.”
Citing HTML5 as the wave of the future, Jobs is ready to put Flash out to the digital pasture. While it’s true that Vimeo and YouTube have rolled out HTML5 betas on their sites, that by no means that Flash is out of the game yet. As we all know just because something is in beta, it doesn’t necessarily mean that were going to see a full-blown, QA-tested product launch anytime soon.
When the populace pointed that out, Jobs changed tactics, saying that running Flash on the iPad would put a major drain on the iPad’s battery, cutting it down from 10 hours to a measly 1.5. Huh? Really? (Side eye at Jobs) Wouldn’t running any video or playing any high level gaming experience put a strain on the battery life? Why with all the subterfuge? What exactly is Steve Jobs’ deal?
According to the folks at Flash, it’s all very simple. It’s about that old mighty dollar. Adobe Product Manager Adrian Ludwig pointed out that all the developers creating Flash-based free games and apps run in direct competition to Apple’s pay-for-play formula in the app store. As far as the claim that Flash is a major power drain, Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch had his own shots for the Apple throne.
“With Flash Player 10.1, we are optimizing video rendering further on the Mac and expect to reduce CPU usage by half, bringing Mac and Windows closer to parity for video.”
In the meantime, Adobe is reportedly whipping up a workaround so developers can keep creating their Flash-based widgets, games, and apps. So while Flash won’t be on the iPad party guest list, expect to see it crashing the party in grand style.
About the Author Sherri is a freelance writer that has a love of all things fun and geeky including gadgets, gaming, anime, and comics. When she isn't writing or out on the town living it up, she loves doing 10-12 hour marathon sessions on her Xbox 360 or one of her older consoles. It's not an addiction, it's a way of life!
See all posts by Sherri L. Smith.
Jobs is right on this one. Adobe is lazy. It's amazing that a product that's in it's 10th revision is so bad. Flash is essentially a shiny turd. It's a resource hog and a source of some very nasty security breaches. Most of flashes inovation has come in the last year or so as a direct response to competition from the likes of Silverlight and HTML 5. As HTML 5 adoption becomes widespread it will kill flash in the browser.
This battle has been over. Adobe should try to repurpose Flash outside of the browser. Apple didn't kill it, they just attended the funeral. HTML 5 was what shot it through the heart. In their early years, Apple and Adobe once were close collaborators, but apparently something shifted in that relationship. Adobe now needs to start moving towards more open standards just as Apple had to embrace or they will be relegated as a distant memory, even with Photoshop as their crown jewel. BTW happy 20th Photoshop, you've proven very well that all that meets the eye is not be believed.