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Steve Jobs Says 'Closed' Adobe Flash Is a Threat

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has explained why Adobe Flash is banned from the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Flash, he indicated, is a closed and antiquated system and videos can be played in a "more modern" format. Jobs also cited security and power-consumption issues with Flash. Most important, Jobs said, Flash would hinder development of Apple's devices.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs released an open letter Thursday outlining why Adobe System's Flash technology is not available on the company's iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Adobe has characterized Apple's ban as primarily a business decision to protect Apple's App Store, Jobs said, but the decision is based on technology.
"Adobe claims that we are a closed system , and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true," Jobs wrote. "While Adobe's Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe."

 

Adopting Open Standards

Instead of depending on Flash, Jobs said Apple has elected to adopt several web technologies for its mobile products that are based on high-performance , low-power implementations of open standards such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), JavaScript and HTML5.

He also countered the implication that Apple's customers are being shortchanged because 75 percent of all web videos are offered in Flash. "What they don't say is that almost all this video  is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads," Jobs wrote.

Though Jobs admitted that Apple's devices cannot play Flash games, he said more than 50,000 games and entertainment titles are available for download at Apple's App Store, including many that are free. He also charged that Flash suffers from major security  issues and consumes too much power from mobile-device batteries because Flash decodes video in software rather than in hardware .

However, Apple's CEO said the most important reason for banning Flash is the concern that if the company allowed a third-party layer of software to come between the platform and the developer, it would ultimately result in substandard apps as well as hinder the enhancement and progress of the platform. "We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers," Jobs wrote.

Bad News For Developers

From a developer perspective, however, the new software development kit legal language which bars third-party providers like Adobe from offering apps on Apple's mobile products is bad news, noted Al Hilwa, program director of application software development at IDC. "What is bothersome about this legal language is that it seems arbitrarily aimed at cutting a whole swath of existing languages and cutting off the developers skilled in them," Hilwa said.

Moreover, this restrictive legal language should not be viewed solely through the prism of the Apple and Adobe relationship, Hilwa observed. "This is not just about Adobe, but potentially a problem for every developer runtime or language that wants to hold on to developers and maintain its longevity," Hilwa said. "It can be thought of as being about programmers maintaining their livelihood" as well as about maintaining "the flexibility to evolve computer languages and software development."

Hilwa thinks what everyone would prefer to see is Apple and Adobe working together. "Apple has to define what it means for applications to be compliant to its interface and other platform and development tool vendors should be given the chance to adapt," Hilwa said.

Translated software, or software that runs on virtual machines, is not necessarily inferior, Hilwa observed. "And it can be made to be effectively as good while offering specific advantages -- namely, being able to address multiple devices or platforms with one development effort, one team, one set of skills," he said.

"We have to remember that some of the greatest innovations in languages over the last 15 years are virtual-machine-based technologies such as Java and .NET that essentially translate in real time under the covers," Hilwa said. "While there may be legitimate technical concerns, technology partnerships are precisely for addressing them."

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