This is a guest post by Craig Walkup. If you would like to contribute too, please contact me.
Adobe has announced that its popular multimedia platform Flash 10.1 will be featured in quite a few mobile platforms, iOS 4 not being one of them.
At their 2010 MAX conference, Adobe announced that Flash will be utilized in WebOS 2.0, Windows Phone 7, Symbian, MeeGo, LiMo, and Blackberry OS. Leaving Apple iOS4 as virtually the only Smartphone operating system that won’t have Flash.
There are a few theories on why Steve Jobs and Apple are so against Flash being implemented on their device.
Preserve App Store
One theory is that they want to preserve their app store, and by allowing flash, developers could design websites that circumvent the need for an actual app, therefore taking money away that would have likely ended up lining the pockets of Apple executives.
It has been said that over 3/4 of the top websites in the world use Flash, so it’s definitely not a stretch to say that the development is there to make money without apple getting their hands on it.
But on the same hand, one would tend to believe that since over 3/4 of the top websites in the world use Flash, that you would want users of your device to be able to experience that. Where Apple would have money taken from them, is exactly where they are taking the Internet experience away from their consumers.
Easy to control
Another theory that is a little easier supported by Apple, publicly, is that Flash can allow for malicious code to be brought into the device.
As a former iPhone user, I will say that one of the best things about owning an iPhone is that, unless you jailbreak or something, your phone stays pretty stable, and has no real problems with viruses, or poorly written programs affecting the performance of the device. Allowing flash on the device could very well change that.
Not enough power?
One of my own theories on possible reasons why Apple won’t allow flash is the fact that the device simply isn’t powerful enough to run it.
I own an HTC Evo 4G right now, and with Android 2.2, I have Flash capability. I will say that despite the faster hardware and memory on this phone, as compared to my iPhone 3GS, the performance of Flash on the web leaves a bit to be desired. It runs rather slow and bulky, and a lot of times, doesn’t look great on a mobile screen. Now, this may change as more Flash developers start developing Flash applications geared toward mobile users, but as it stands, I cant imagine flash running well, if at all on the iPhone.
Verdict
At any rate, the way mobile technology is rapidly developing, with faster phones coming out seemingly every day, I can’t help but think that Apple may need to reconsider their stance on Flash, considering pretty much every other mobile OS will have it.
Craig Walkup is a freelance writer for iPhone repair techs at iFixyour.
FaceTime for Mac has been announced at the same day as new MacBook Air. FaceTime was only available on iOS for iPhone 4 and iPod Touch. Now, Apple made the WiFi video calling available across desktop computer and mobile devices.
