Flash is bad! Says Apple.
Written by Mihai Dragan on Thursday, April 29th, 2010 ( 5 responses )
Tags: adobe, apple, flash, thoughts on flash
You may have heard that Apple has made quite a vocal comment on Flash. They actually posted it on their front page. In case you haven’t read it – here it is: Thoughts on Flash.
In my opinion these views are clearly biased. Of course Flash runs badly on mobiles. Of course it’s not suited for the iPad. But that doesn’t mean it’s actually “bad”. It’s just useful for a particular set of things.
Is Flash perfect? Probably not. How about useful?
There is a whole industry built on top Flash technology. It does its job. Some things built in Flash are masterpieces of art and programming. For example – what would you call these things? They don’t use HTML 5, they are not open, they probably don’t support touch. But we like them. They are expressions of human creativity. And maybe, just maybe, Apple should not be so quick to label and dismiss a technology that proved itself useful so far. Not perfect, just useful.
Comments:
on Thursday, April 29th, 2010
Hi Mihai,
First of all, I’ll give you an example: When you are working at Flash is not the same thing as working in Flash. That’s why I think you’ve got it wrong, Steve was talking about the technology itself and not about what Flash technology can do. And one other thing…you are point to some websites made in flash for anything else but mobile, where is actually the problem here pointed by Jobs. Try it for yourself, browse a fwa awarded website on HTC or other Smartphone. That’s the thing Flash does.
Now, my opinion is that everything you see on fwa can and will be done in HTML5. And it will be available for mobile also. That’s the big thing here. Why do you think fwa has moved from only-flash websites to iphone apps, non-flash websites and” whatever the technology let it be creative”.?
Apple has a good point here and Adobe has no chance in standing it. But of course this is a long talk, with pros and cons…so long that can’t fit in a comment box
on Thursday, April 29th, 2010
Apple never said Flash is bad; Apple was just talking about Flash on mobiles, saying the current Flash is unsuited for mobile platforms, and he made his point(with arguments). This doesn’t mean Flash is dead, this only means Flash needs a redesign for mobile devices, one that Apple and others would willingly embrace: power efficient, touch-driven and agile.
on Thursday, April 29th, 2010
Alex you have a very good point there but, there is always a but, do you think if Flash will be redesigned and ready for mobile, Apple will let its App Store down? I think that Flash on App Store will be the end of Apple SDK, Xcode and so on…and that’s where the big bucks are coming
Cheers, nice wend!
on Thursday, April 29th, 2010
Today no technology can do what Flash does. Not even Silverlight, and it has been very slowly adopted for that reason.
HTML5 won’t have the means of doing what Flash does either, and small businesses won’t ask for HTML5 stuff because of two things:
1. Time.
2. Cost.
In comparison with a similar Flash project, the same stuff built in HTML5 will probably take twice as much time, and be 5 to 10 times more expensive (due to the small number of devs who will actually be able to build such components in HTML5, browser compatible).
What Steve does is trying to combine the mobile web with the desktop web. He’s got a point, but I think it’s wrong to try and fly with a boat. A boat is done for navigation, airplanes are done for flying. (get the point?)
on Thursday, April 29th, 2010
Andrei you should read this:
http://on.wsj.com/dClsnJ
It’s getting better and better…
What is your opinion?