Steve Jobs shares his thoughts on Flash and Ask to read it

Steve Jobs has posted an open letter on Apple’s website regarding Adobe’s Flash. Below is an exclusive summary of the six key points as to why Flash is not supported on iPhone OS.

• Apple says Flash isn’t “open”
  Apple notes that Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary meaning that they are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc.
• Adobe claims iPhone OS cannot access the “full web”
  Apple disagrees. Apple states that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, which is viewable on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. In addition, Apple supports HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. And don’t forget the shiny YouTube application.
• Reliability, Security, Performance
  Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. Flash is the number one reason why Macs crash. Flash does not run well on mobile devices.
• Battery life
  Flash requires that videos be encoded through software rather than hardware which gives you about half the battery life.
• Touch
  Flash has many features that do not work well with multi-touch such as rollovers. Developers would need to rewrite their Flash websites. Instead, Apple suggests switching to more modern technologies like HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript.
• “The most important reason”
  Apple isn’t too fond of having third party development tools. Especially if it’s cross-platform.

The full-length letter can be found across the jump.

Full-Length Letter on APPLE:

Adobe’s CS5 & Flash support comming on iPhone OS 4.0

In a blog post on Adobe’s conversations blog, CTO Kevin Lynch responded to Apple and its revised SDK license that seemingly prohibits third party compilers. Adobe is on the offensive as this restriction would directly effect Adobe CS5 products like Flash Professional CS5 which will include a Packager for iPhone when it is officially released. With this new SDK license, Flash developers using Adobe’s tools would violate Apple’s terms of service and their applications would not receive Apple’s rubber stamp of approval. Unlike Lee Brimelow who ended his personal response on much more scathing note, Lynch, in his corporate response, stood firm on the iPhone export feature for CS5. He placed the acceptance of these Adobe-generated apps squarely on Apple’s shoulders and, in a bit of a jab, its “shifting” App store rules. Sticking the knife in a little bit further, Lynch noted that Adobe’s authoring platforms are looking beyond Apple and its devices and will continue to work with industry partners to bring content and applications to a wide range of devices. Get out your virtual scorecard folks as this corporate cat fight is starting to heat up...

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