Edible Apple

In response to the extreme public reactions that followed OJ Simpson’s acquittal on murder charges, Chris Rock once quipped that black people were too happy and white people were too mad.

In a similar vein, the back and forth bickering over the iPad’s lack of Flash is getting to be a bit ridiculous, with people acting as if they have an immeasurable personal stake in the matter. On one hand you have people in the Flash camp arguing that the technology is an essential part of using the web. And on the other hand you have a vocal contingent passionately arguing that Flash blows and should die a slow painful death.

The reality, not surprisingly, is somewhere in the middle. Yes, flash does serve a purpose, but it’s not as if it’s an absolute necessity for enjoyable for web surfing. To be honest, why people are getting so worked up about it is beyond me.

Andy Ihnatko sums up the Flash controversey perfectly in his hands-on review of the iPad:

It’s true that there’s a lot of Flash content out there. But Flash – see Adobe’s reaction to the lack of Flash support on iPad here – is in no way part of the true language of the Internet. It’s Scottish-accented English. Sometimes it makes the language more colorful and entertaining, and sometimes it just renders it into unintelligible mush.

And that’s all it is, really. Apple will never go back and re-consider its position on Flash vis a vis the iPhone and iPad – and that’s okay. It is what it is, and yet, some people are way too happy while others are irrationally mad.