7 million iPhone and iPod touch users tried to download Flash, and left sad

You are also forgetting that several pages have multiple SWF files in them as a lost of use is for ad (the evil insta-play video ads are the worst).

Also, as an update to this column, I'd say that YouTube is using HTML5 and Flash is not necessary to view videos.
http://www.youtube.com/html5/

Speaking as a developer, most of the things I see in Flash are not necessary, and in the ad space it is used to grab your attention or annoy you until you leave the site.

Navigation does not need to be done in flash, and most of the sites using it for adding a little "flash" (sorry about the pun) is using it for the wrong reason. Most Flash developers are still using AS2.0 and not even the full features of AS3.0.

Now to defend Flash as a crasher on the Mac, well, yes, yes it is, but 50% of the time it is the developers who are pushing out cut-and-paste flash code and SWF files that are also contributing to the issue. Certain Flash movie players are simply poorly put together.

Furthermore, sites like HULU are using somewhat better crafted code to protect their media but it still has issues (both on PC and MAC - more so on the latter) with stuttering, frame refresh and still video while the audio continues to play. This is due to the code, not necessarily Adobe Flash on the whole.

Then again, I may be wrong... Yeah, right. Good luck with that.

"The banner was flashing at me... so I HAD to click on it."

Adobe is afraid, very afraid. When a company spends time trying to make excuses and reasons for their laziness, you know they are shaking in their boots.

That's what happens when you treat ~10% of the market share like second class citizens.

Adobe, wake up! It's your code that's the problem. Besides then end to flash is nearer than I think one is willing to believe. You see chrome (webkit) and firefox both taking over the browser market, because they happen to be quick on their feet, they are innovating, blazing new trails.

Adobe, get out there and do the same! Blaze new trails and stop whimpering. Can you imagine if everyone just settled on Internet Explorer? Now you have IE8. Competition is healthy. Suck it up and get to work.

7 million. I'm surprised that people wanted to full-motion advertisements in their web experience. Then again, spam is profitable--people will click on anything that tells them to.

Steve Jobs says that Adobe Flash is the most unstable product ever in history and that is so true. Most of adobe products do have alot of problems and they are very lazy according to steve, and I think that's true too. All companies are lazy though, even apple because even though the iphone os and mac os snow leapord is good, its the software, im tired of everything crashing and going slow all the time WHEN WILL IT STOP, well it will stop once everyone updates their sites to html5, when you don't have to download flash, silverlight and crap. :) thank god lol its weird how flash is the only thing like it to watch videos or you can use divx web player

For all of the people out there clamoring for this...

IT IS NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN.

Hell Adobe just told Google they would need to make `changes` to Android to accomodate *them*.

This issue is technical and political. Adobe is willing to do everything *but fix the software* to try to rectify the situation and it really doesnt matter if YOU like it or not. This isnt about what `users` want...but ultimately what Adobe wants to sell.

The only people on Earth that are hurt in a non-Flash world are...Adobe.

As demonstrated...repeatedly...on the platform, streaming video is possible...using OPEN STANDARDS, OPEN MIDDLEWARE and OPEN BACKENDS.

This is what `evil Apple` supports. This doesnt benefit *Adobe* in any way. None. Zero.

Instead of, as I said, trying to fix the issue (because adobe very much wants flash apps on the iPhone...they can count) they are attempting to do an end-run around Apple by wrapping AIR/Flash apps in a binary.

How bad is that? A 15 line sample app is a 3.2 Megabyte monster. And doesnt run very well.

This notion that Apple, or anyone needs Flash is one simply proliferated by Adobe, the Actionscript people and the industry they have spawned; making annoying ads.

For fast, slick, interactive and dynamic websites...with available modern browsers *even on mobile platforms*...you just dont *need* Flash.

What is worse, most of the stuff people complain about has a *much* better native experience anyway. If hulu.com wants to get some of that 75 Million iPhone OS devices and counting ad revenue, they can do what everyone else does; flip the site to stream non-Flash video and/or create an app for the platform.

But at the end of the day, all of the pissing and moaning Adobe does will not sway Apple in any way. Apple is not interested in offering a lesser experience on their platform or coding around Adobe for things that do not need Adobe Flash technology to be made.

-K

"...funny cat videos..."

Hahahahahahahaha!!

That's all I have to say about that =]:

The article plainly says 7 million requests (not unique users). Depending on how the web developers configure their fallback code, they could have it automatically hit the download url at Adobe. Given there are 75 million devices, I'd presume each one loaded at least one web page in the month (I know I've loaded several thousand each month on mine). The fact that only 7 million views hit the Adobe download urls from those devices tells me how little an issue this is.

If Flash is so bad for Apple hardware and the Apple "experience," then why is it allowed on my Macbook, my iMac and my 10-year-old Powerbook?

I love my Apple hardware and my Adobe software. Until the iPhone came along, they played together without a fuss, and it seems to me that it is Apple who is acting like the spoiled child in this fight.

Last time I checked you could open Adobe PDF files on the iPhone.

There is room for both Flash and HTML5. They are not mutually exclusive. If HTML has advantages over Flash, you can bet that either it will be adopted for such uses and/pr Adobe will improve Flash in ways that give it an advantage.

If Apple simply does not want to pay license fees for Flash, that's up to them, but they need to understand that they are cutting out a large amount of web content.

By the way, Jason, an advertisement is referred to as an "ad" not an "add". And, no, I do not work for Adobe, although I would if asked. I do not know why my comment appeared multiple times. I am sure somehow Flash is to blame.

Yawn. This discussion is so tired. It's clickbait for sure now.