Zach SpearAn Adobe spokeswoman told Dow Jones Tuesday (today) that Flash Lite needs more help from Apple than iPhone maker has traditionally afforded its developers. She then refused to confirm whether Apple and Adobe are working together, possibly signaling that the two are not working as closely as previously thought.
Late last month, Adobe chief Shantanu Narayen said the iPhone maker was collaborating with his company on a "hard technical challenge." His comment, "The onus is on [Adobe] to deliver," seems to disagree with the spokeswoman's assertion that Adobe still needs more help.
The software maker recently released a new version of Flash Lite that supports high definition videos, but not the iPhone.
Apple declined comment for the Dow Jones report; however, its continuing reticence to help Flash Lite along should come as no surprise. The Cupertino-based iPhone maker has long encouraged developers to use open standards on the device in an effort to promote interoperability and cross platform independence for the next generation of internet applications.
The iPhone and Mac maker has been disappointed in the past with Adobe prioritizing its Windows plug-in at the expense of the Mac version, which fell behind in performance and features. Apple was likely trying to avoid the same problems spilling over to the iPhone, backing up Steve Jobs' criticisms of the "too slow" desktop version and the crippled capability of Flash Lite, which can't fully run content written for the desktop. It could also be prone to memory leaks and overworking the processor.
An Apple developer document published two Junes ago listed Flash as an "unsupported technology" and told devs, "You'll want to avoid using Flash and Java for iPhone content. You'll also want to avoid encouraging users to download the latest Flash on their iPhone, because neither Flash nor downloads are supported by Safari on iPhone."
The guidelines went on to recommend CSS, JavaScript, and Ajax instead. Apple has taken up an effort to remove Flash from its own corporate site and other products, and it teamed with Google to use the H.264 standard instead of Flash on the iPhone's YouTube app.
Taken together, these signs suggest an iPhone with Flash support is highly unlikely despite Adobe's persistence.
For more, see the AppleInsider series Flash Wars.
Wesley Hilliard
Bon Adamson
Thomas Sibilly
Marko Zivkovic
Andrew Orr
79 Comments
Google, Palm, Mozilla, and Apple are all working to improve javascript engines and building new javascript frameworks. Adobe is essentially working on Flash all by itself.
Adobe sees its outgunned and is fighting to keep Flash relevant in the future.
Google, Palm, Mozilla, and Apple are all working to improve javascript engines and building new javascript frameworks. Adobe is essentially working on Flash all by itself.
Adobe sees its outgunned and is fighting to keep Flash relevant in the future.
And Mozilla gets a bulk of its income from Google...
Until Adobe can actually optimize flash so it is not a CPU hog I don't think Flash should be on the iPhone. If it were, iPhone batteries would be sucked dry very quickly. With some mobile surfing, people would be left wondering why their iPhone is only holding a charge for one or two hours.
Flash is evil. Death to Flash!
I don't miss flash on the iPhone at all. Even browsing the web on my PC laptop I have flash disabled as its a PITA.
IF, adobe can sort its shit out and release an optimised version of flash for ALL platforms this would be best but, tbh, Adobe seem incapable of releasing anything that is optimised.