Jobs Says There's No Job For Flash On the iPhone
I don't know which I dread accidentally clicking on more: A PDF link (Adobe) or a Quicktime video (Apple). But unless you live under a rock, you're looking at Flash video every day on the Internet. Steve Jobs doesn't seem to be; he's publicly announced that Flash is unsuitable for the iPhone in any of its current iterations. Adobe countered that if your smartphone doesn't play Flash video, it's a pretty dumb smartphone.
Rather than support Flash, Apple requires that video be delivered in a particular file format. As a result, even though Google's YouTube has agreed to go along with Apple, only a fraction of Web video is playable on the iPhone. Flash is used to display the majority of online video, including that on YouTube.
Jobs' remarks were not well received by Adobe. Indeed, Ryan Stewart, the chief spokesman for Adobe's Internet applications, questioned in his blog on ZDNet whether the iPhone was ready for the Web without Flash.
"I'd even go as far as to say that the Web experience isn't complete on the iPhone until some kind of Flash support is added," Stewart said.
Stewart pointed out how Nokia and Sony have adopted Flash in mobile devices. "We've got a lot of partners, 450 million Flash-enabled devices out there and we're looking at 1 billion devices with Flash by 2010."
Let's make some popcorn, watch them yell at each other some more, and wait for Microsoft Silverlight to be released and drive them both up the wall.
Rather than support Flash, Apple requires that video be delivered in a particular file format. As a result, even though Google's YouTube has agreed to go along with Apple, only a fraction of Web video is playable on the iPhone. Flash is used to display the majority of online video, including that on YouTube.
Jobs' remarks were not well received by Adobe. Indeed, Ryan Stewart, the chief spokesman for Adobe's Internet applications, questioned in his blog on ZDNet whether the iPhone was ready for the Web without Flash.
"I'd even go as far as to say that the Web experience isn't complete on the iPhone until some kind of Flash support is added," Stewart said.
Stewart pointed out how Nokia and Sony have adopted Flash in mobile devices. "We've got a lot of partners, 450 million Flash-enabled devices out there and we're looking at 1 billion devices with Flash by 2010."
Let's make some popcorn, watch them yell at each other some more, and wait for Microsoft Silverlight to be released and drive them both up the wall.
