To deflect the complaints about the lack of Flash on the iPad, Steve Jobs has issued a press release, stating what he wants the gullible to believe are his reasons for excluding Flash from the i-Ecosystem.

Of course, we all know that the main reason for the banning of Flash and Java from the iPad is that Flash and Java can bypass Apple's delivery system, and reduce Apple's revenue from selling to their captive audience things that are often available on the web for free.

Below are relevant excerpts from the press-release, with some quick comments below each claim.

Apple Press Release

...

First, there's "Open".

Adobe's Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. 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. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.

... we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards. ... HTML5 is completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of which Apple is a member.
...

If "open" was the highest priority for Apple, they wouldn't be pushing a proprietary video format, H.264.

If "open" was the highest priority for Apple, there would be Java on the iPad. But, of course, Java breaks the wall of the garden, just like Flash, so it's not allowed.

As to Flash, Steve must certainly be aware of the plethora of open source Flash projects, like MTASC or GNASH.

Take a look at Open Source Flash Projects for a bunch of other open source Flash projects.

But, most importantly, today much of the web employs Flash - whether Jobs likes it, or not. This is the reality we live in

Second, there's the "full web".

Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access "the full web" because 75% of video on the web is 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. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web's video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices....

Another Adobe claim is that Apple devices cannot play Flash games. This is true. Fortunately, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free....

Not true. Really. Not only is most video on the web in Flash, but Flash is used for a lot more than video on the web. Without Flash, you cannot view the regular versions of many large sites, and you cannot view sites done in Flash at all.

But even if we focus on video, as Jobs wants us to, the conversion of a portion of Youtube's videos, and a smattering here and there, to H.264, doesn't change the fact that the iPad is useless for most of the video available on the web.

Without Flash, and without Java, iPad and iPhone users are relegated to the status of a second class we citizen. No matter what Jobs wants us to believe.

Third, there's reliability, security and performance.

... We don't want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash.

In addition, Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it. ...

Really?! The greatest security risk, on the Mac platform is by farApple's own QuickTime - see this breakdown from Sans.org.

If security was such a priority for Apple, then it should ban the distribution of QuickTime with their computers.

Apple has traditionally been one of the worst major OS providers in terms of responding to known security threat. In 2009, Apple took six months before it fixed a widely know Java exploit. See, for instance Mac OS X Java fiasco: Apple still doesn't get security.

Oh, and Flash 10.1 beta runs nicely on Google’s Nexus One - with hardware acceleration.

Fourth, there's battery life.

To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. ...

Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. ...

Wait, I thought Jobs told us that “almost all” video is available in H.264....

BS. If Apple cooperated with Adobe the way Microsoft does, Flash would run as well on Mac OS, as on Windows. The Flash betas run fine on Android 2.1 (Nexus One), with hardware acceleration.

But even if Flash video is more resource intensive, it should be our choice whether to drain our batteries in 5 hours, while enjoying the full web, with video and animation.

Fifth, there's Touch.

Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. ....

Again, BS. Flash 10.1 supports multi-touch.

Adobe has introduced great authoring tools to create multi-touch Flash applications. For more on Flash and multi-touch, see for example Preparing for Multi-touch in Flash - A Primer.

Sixth, the most important reason.

... Adobe also wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on our mobile devices.

...Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe's goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps. And Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple's platforms. For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X.

Another disingenuous argument.

Someone should tell Steve Jobs that Apple’s own Final Cut Pro is still not fully written in Cocoa and therefore it doesn’t run in 64-bit..

Our motivation is simple – we want to provide the most advanced and innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to stand directly on the shoulders of this platform and create the best apps the world has ever seen. We want to continually enhance the platform so developers can create even more amazing, powerful, fun and useful applications. Everyone wins – we sell more devices because we have the best apps, developers reach a wider and wider audience and customer base, and users are continually delighted by the best and broadest selection of apps on any platform.

If Steve Jobs really cared that iPhone and iPad developers reach “wider and wider audience,” he would have allowed Adobe’s great cross platform tools.

Instead, he attempts to lock them into his walled garden, just like the iPhone/iPad consumers.

The reality is, Jobs is afraid that developers will use Adobe’s tools to create great cross platform application, which will then be available for Android, and Windows Mobile 7, and the iPhone. And the iPhone may eventually lose in the open field of competition.

Conclusions.

Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.

The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple's mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And the 200,000 apps on Apple's App Store proves that Flash isn't necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games.

New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.

Steve Jobs
April, 2010

My conclusion is that Steve Jobs is at best disingenuous, trying to justify his clearly anticompetitive actions, by blaming Adobe, the one company which kept Apple afloat during its darkest times in the 1990s.

Apple has become worse than the Microsoft of old.

I only hope that the truly open Android OS continues to erode Apple’s mobile market share.

Tags: iPad, Steve Jobs, Apple, iPhone, iPod, Adobe, Flash, Java