Wired reports a few reasons why we shouldn’t expect to see flash on the iPhone in the near future, or ever at all. One potential explanation is simply the fact that flash would compete with the iTunes app store. Why would users be inclined to pay $1.99 to download a videogame when they could simply play an assortment of flash games online for free.
Another explanation could be that Apple has no intention to put flash on the iPhone because it’s not an Apple technology, and has been mentioned many times before, Apple likes to control all aspects of the user experience. Flash is a huge part of the Internet, so allowing a non-proprietary technology on the iPhone would in a certain respect cause Apple to depend on Adobe, something Apple obviously doesn’t want. For example, if Adobe comes out with an upgraded version of flash, how would users download that update? Via an Apple software update? From an Adobe website? Flash on the iPhone just might entail too much confusion and potential complications with respect to providing user support for the popular technology.
And aside from taking software control away from Apple, Flash would introduce a slew of other potential headaches as well. Flash apps could hurt battery life, suck up the graphics-processing unit’s power, use an inordinate amount of memory, or potentially introduce security risks. Apple has plenty of customer complaints to address about the iPhone; the last thing it needs is to add Adobe and Flash to the pile.
Wired has the full scoop over here.
November 18th, 2008 at 5:05 am
Your title – – caught my eye on the google blogsearch page. Just goes to show you how important good titles are! 😉 I’ve added http://www.edibleapple.com to my reader, so I can see what else you come up with