Apple-Adobe War, Who is the Winner?
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With the escalated stages of the war between Apple and Adobe. It becomes crystal clear that Apple assaults Adobe by totally prevention of Flash application on iPhone and iPad. Apple has declared that the only accepted application on iPhone and iPad should be developed in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript.
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As published on Mashable blog on April 09 2010, Apple says:
“3.3.1 — Applications may only use DocumentedAPIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the DocumentedAPIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).”
Although this topic is not directly related to design, but it is directly touch designers, Flash designers, developers and media viewers over the web. However, let’s analyse the situation from the design aspect of view.
What does Flash mean to the market?
Although the illusion of competition between Flash and other media tools on the web such as HTML5 and Sliverlight, Flash was the first and is still the best media delivery and video streaming tool on the web for both developers and users.
Actually, Flash has never been limited to video display, or media streaming. Flash extends to cover media from mobile phones, desktop, DVDs, TV broadcasting, eLearning content, screen reader application for accessibility and much more. You can accomplish all those projects with just Flash with very little time and cost consumption.
What do iPhone and iPad mean to the market?
It is understandable that Apple OS is providing an extended experience and more fun for Apple users. However, this operating system should allow you to reach all the available content including Flash.
Who is the Winner in this War?
After having a look at what Flash and iPhone and iPad mean to the market, the question is who is the winner in this war? Is it Adobe? Is it Apple? Let’s analyse who is the real winner in this war between Apple and Adobe with considering the users themselves.
Will Apple win?
Let’s start with Apple since it is the party that started the war. Apple will still keep their loyal users who don’t care about losing Flash content such as sites like Yoututbe, and other news oriented sites who use Flash.
. However, does this mean Apple is a real winner?
Apple will lose the users that see Flash is an important content and the users who do not like to lose the ability to view Flash content on the web. Furthermore, Apple will lose Adobe users, developers who seek to build applications on Apple devices forever.
They could risk losing the users who see Flash as more than just banner ads, that you can use Flash for applications and games and other uses. Sites like Nike who have an all Flash/Flex based website and shopping cart have put money into the Flash Platform because it increases usability for the user of their site. Those sites were done by a team of people and choosing Flash as the output wasn’t done lightly. There were good business reasons for those decisions.
Besides, Apple will absolutely lose Flash Platform developers who were interested in making future iPhone and iPad applications. Does Apple really want to risk alienating 300,000 Flash developers? Do they want a closed environment so badly they are willing to risk great applications being made that their loyal users will love, just to keep things closed down and under their tight control?
However, Apple is closing the door on the front of the face of a good percentage of the market which means they are losing these users.
Will Adobe win?
Although Adobe will lose iPhone and iPad as a developing plateform, but it will continue to develop Flash applications on a tremendous number of devices that support Flash including desktop, mobile devices, web, TV and video production. So, Adobe will not lose so much. On the other hand, it will lose Apple lovers who are ready to abandon Flash for the use of Apple new devices. This means they will lose as well.
What about the users?
With direct words, Apple’s users will lose Flash and Adobe’s users will lose Apple. However, both of Adobe users and Apple users will lose in this game. If we have a look to what the real users need, you will find that most Apple’s users are looking for viewing Flash content on the web. not only streaming video. but also interactivecontent such as Flash sites and presentations, games and learning modules for your children. On the other hand, many of Adobe users like to use Apple technologies as a better choice than Microsoft solutions.
Conclusion
The conclusion to this article is none of the parties is a winner. And the biggest loser is the users from other parties. However, Apple should listen to the market users and try to meet their needs and expectations. This article does not offend a specific party but offends the actions that offend the user at the end.
At the end, I would like to thank Dee Sadler for reviewing the article and sharing helpful information.
You’re wrong. Apple won. The iPad is free from contamination by a buggy piece of obsolete bloatware. And the arrogant bastards at Adobe got what’s coming to them. It’s an important lesson, and I trust they shall profit by it. So in a sense, everyone won!
FLASH IS DEAD – JOIN THE HTML5 REVOLUTION!
Your opinion looks interesting and I would like to hear more about it. Why do you think Flash is Dead? Why Apple offends Flash when it is still allowing Flash on Desktop Mac machines?
I know about HTML5 and delivering video content, but can HTML5 provide interactive content such as Nike site or Disney games for example? can it deliver a scalable cartoon animation…etc. I like to know your opinion about Flash vs HTML5 from this aspect.
I’m a Flash animator but one thing that I realized while using Flash technology that the Flash Player can be really buggy and can have a lot of security holes. I do appreciate that Adobe is fixing it all up with the new release 10.1 but not really sure if this player will be able to maintain great performance in small mobile devices. It’s already buggy on the Mac. I agree with Apple not allowing it on the iPhone/iPad platform. Why will you get a third party development tool on a platform that’s already achieving awesome sales and great reviews, which has great developing tools like Objective-C and X-Code. As with the Android / Java paradigm, I don’t think this combination will achieve the performance and ubiquitous nature that the iPhone / iPad has. Correct me if I’m wrong but Virtual Machines are virtual machines, I haven’t found any evidence that they will be able to beat native code on any platform. Java and ActionScript are great programming languages but as a company, Apple, has invested a lot of time and money on developing the iPhone / iPad environment. I don’t think it’s worth tinting that very tight eco system with developing languages that they don’t supervise, just to please the Flash or any other 3rd party development community. YouTube already has an iPhone / iPad app, same with Daily Motion and Hulu is just around the corner with theirs. I don’t think the end users will miss out of Flash only content on the iPhone / iPad as much as the Flash Evangilists are howling and screaming about. They make it sound like it’s the end of the world because you don’t have Flash.
.-= Teddy Matayoshi´s last blog ..TeddyMatayoshi: Really love Ray Caesar’s Art. Soft and very delicate lines. http://bit.ly/dofIaP =-.
HTML5 will gradually kill flash, it’s a fact. Flash is expensive, energy consumming, buggy and inefficient technology. Have you ever noticed how the browser consumes processor resources when you open flash site, same with memmory? AS3 is awkward and insufficient attempt to fix the problem which did not work the way it was supposed to.
James T is damn right.
Yes, HTML5 may get updates and develop new features by the time. But still can not compete Flash as you can not create a whole online eLearning course in HTML 5 considering all the multimedia you can add in Flash. On the other hand, HTML 5 can view the video, but can not create it. On the other hand, Flash can create games that I doubt HTML can do.
And for the AS3. actually it is much better than AS2 with regard the memory consumption and it has alot new OOP capabilities that make it able to create content you used to do in Java and C with larger budget and time frame.
You can also consider in your judge the other benefits that you can get from Flash such as the maximum integration with other Adobe products such as Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effect and more. On the other hand, you can consider that the cost to create a project in Flash comparing with other tools. Furthermore, you can take your web Flash project to desktop, mobile, TV, DVD and even make it work on screen readers for audiences with disabilities.
Thanks tedd for the great comment. I am not a Mac user and use Flash mobile with no problem at all. However, it is better for both Adobe and Apple to work together to fix the Flash on iPhone and ipad instead of banning Apple users from watching Flash content on the mobile such as Youtube, Disney, Flash games and more. That is why I though in my article that there is not winner in this war, there is only one loser, which is the user.
Apple can simple add an option to disable Flash player or remove it so the Apple users that would like to see Flash content can see it on their risk if Apple say that Flash buggy on mobile.
Thanks tedd for the great comment. I am not a Mac user and use Flash mobile with no problem at all. However, it is better for both Adobe and Apple to work together to fix the Flash on iPhone and ipad instead of banning Apple users from watching Flash content on the mobile such as Youtube, Disney, Flash games and more. That is why I though in my article that there is not winner in this war, there is only one loser, which is the user.
Apple can simple add an option to disable Flash player or remove it so the Apple users that would like to see Flash content can see it on their risk if Apple say that Flash buggy on mobile.
I hope Adobe will stop developing all they’re products special photoshop on mac. I hate mac!!!!
to….Teddy Matayoshi says:
teddy, sometimes i thing people just use the internet to go straight to you tube. you are wrong . even adobe will lose being the first player in the video showing over internet market.
you have thousand of flash based websites, animations, comics, games, 90 % percent of the fashion industry uses flash, with flash a designer can develop content, htm5 is for programmers not for designers.
the internet is much more than video watching. i have the feeling some people not even reconized how much flash is in the internet involved. not just the video format.
believe it or not. flash will not dispear, html 5 is not even out and you all are talking as its already an existing format adapted by all developers…
if apple would wait till html 5 is already a year on the marked and say something like this then i might would believe it but now coming out with a ipad and saying it is a internet device and you dont need flash…
the truth is the ipad is a internet kripple and flash will not be dead, because you cannot force all the companies who invested a lot of money into their flash websites to change from today to tomorrow, only because you are the sick steve jobs.
there a millions of websites which are based on flash tedd and they not even show a single video. accept this and dont talk about video all the time. i cant here this argumente which is not a real argument…
Few of us know enough about all the underlying tech issues regarding Flash and iOS, and as far as pure video I tend to doubt the issue matters in the end as video doesn’t need Flash. But Flash as vector-related multimedia is a whole different animal. I’d like to know the full inside details, the whole story behind this fight. Is it only technological, or also political or part of a larger business fight? Did it originate with Adobe developing new technologies that initially didn’t function on Macs, after having helped provide the overwhelming graphic design base for Apple? Is this Apple paying Adobe back, and in the process perhaps purposefully further eroding Apple’s own historic graphic design demographic? I’ve always used Macs, as years ago it didn’t make sense not to for graphics, and ever since it didn’t make sense to switch with all the related investment in software, fonts, etc that would have to be repurchased to leave Apple. But if this Flash move isn’t completely based on near insolvable technological issues, I now wonder if abandoning Apple might actually begin to make sense. Sure, Apple is now riding high, and for now (and probably a good deal of the foreseeable future) has much of the mobile market locked up. But for traditional graphic design, at least design and publishing that may not need phone and tablet output, will Apple continue to be a platform that will fully support all graphic design requirements? Has Flash outlived its usefulness, which I find doubtful, or is it merely the first technology Apple decides to block to attack a former partner?
Thank you John for your comment and opinion about this issue. i think the problem behind this that Apple assumes that Flash consume alot of the machine resources and power. While this is true, but I think the best solution for the community is to solve this issue and make Flash less resources consumer.
I agree with you that mobiel devices are not suitable to provide full graphic experience for both designer and graphic viewer due to the limited resources in mobile devices and the intensive need for resource in high graphic experience. I think this is why Apple did not block Flash on large machines because it has good infrastructure of resources. This is a good point because we will not have to move from Apple productions that we love so much 😉