Cupertino,
Calif. – Apple (NASD: AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs on
Thursday published an open letter explaining why the company won’t be allowing
Adobe’s (NASD: ADBE) Flash platform to run on its iPhone and other mobile devices. Jobs
criticizes Flash for not being an open platform, as well as for security,
stability, and battery life issues, and for not supporting multi-touch interfaces.
Addressing Adobe’s contention that the iPhone doesn’t offer the "full
Web," as 75% of Web video is in Flash, Jobs noted that "almost all
this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on
iPhone, iPods and iPads."
He also shrugged off the contention that most
online games are designed using Flash, noting that "there are over 50,000
games and entertainment titles on the App Store."
The most important
reason to exclude Flash on the iPhone, according to Jobs, is an aversion to
relying on any third-party software.
"If developers grow dependent on
third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of
platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new
features," Jobs wrote in the letter.
"We cannot be at the mercy of a
third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to
our developers."
Related Links:
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/
LOLS! Who peed in his wheaties?