Virgin America dumps Flash over lack of iPhone support
As the smack down between Apple and Adobe continues, Virgin America has dumped Flash from its website because of the lack of iPhone support. Virgin's new website, which launched Monday, replaces Flash with HTML to give users the ability to check in via their iPhones in the future. Virgin plans on moving their new site to HTML 5, once it's cleared standards ratification at the World Wide Web Consortium.
Virgin's Chief information officer Ravi Simhambhatla told The Register: "I don't want to cater to one hardware or one software platform one way to another, and Flash eliminates iPhone users. This year is going to be the year of the mobile [for Virgin]."
While Apple has left Flash out of the iPhone since it debuted in 2007, things stayed relatively civil between Apple and Adobe. That all changed when Apple unveiled the iPad and decided to leave Flash off that as well. Four days after the launch of the iPad, Steve Jobs held a town hall meeting with Apple employees where he trashed Adobe and Flash, saying, "They are lazy. They have all this potential to do interesting things, but they just refuse to do it. They don't do anything with the approaches that Apple is taking, like Carbon. Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it's because of Flash. No one will be using Flash. The world is moving to HTML5." Three weeks later Jobs met with the board of the Wall Street Journal where he allegedly talked smack about Flash again, saying Flash is a dying technology and likened it to floppy discs and CCFL-backlit LCDs.
With iPhone sales soaring with no peak in sight, will Flash still thrive without Apple's support? Then again, it's not just Apple that is turning against Flash. Google is openly committed to HTML5 and Microsoft has its own proprietary Flash competitor in Silverlight. Only time will tell if Virgin's dismissal of Flash is a one-off case or the first domino to fall.
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As the smack down between Apple and Adobe continues, Virgin America has dumped Flash from its website because of the lack of iPhone...
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My Safari used to crash all the time, but once I installed the plug-in called ClickToFlash, surfing the internet has gotten more stable, so far.
I am not sure ClickToFlash is the cause of Safari with near zero crash; maybe someone can enlighten me.
http://safariaddons.com/en-US/safari/addon/51
oh, this is actually a double whammy. No flash AND no IE6 support
March 04 2010 at 12:26 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI read an article where a Flash developer explains that many Flash apps won't work on the iPhone due to lack of mouse events
"Flash Developer Explains Why Touchscreen Devices like iPad, iPhone Cannot Use Flash"
http://www.iphonehacks.com/2010/02/flash-developer-explains-why-touchscreen-devices-ipad-iphone-might-never-support-flash.html
The problem is greater than just being buggy and a resource hog
I actually do see that as to much of a problem, more like a challenge to come up with good ideas how to change the behaviour.
There certainly will be applications that are unsuitable for touch devices .. but most of the things should be possible to work around like tap and hold .. or tap once on the video for controls .. two finger tap to bring up.
But I guess that will be something we can see once Flash comes to Android, apparently Adobe feels confident that it is work good enough.
T.
Another proof that things can be done without Flash. Now if only restaurants follow suit. I mean there are tons of restaurants that have Flash only website, and by that I mean literally Flash only, all the contents are in Flash, including contacts and menu.
March 03 2010 at 3:26 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplySilverliggt is a CPU hog also. I was watching the olympics on a sliverlight plugin and it got smokin hot. Definately as bad or worse than flash
March 03 2010 at 3:26 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyFlash free?! lol... click the "where we fly" picture on the main webpage..
http://www.virginamerica.com/va/travelInfo.do?pageName=routemap&rightBar=routemap_right_bar
Contrary to popular belief--US is not the world. Worldwide iPhone comprise small portion of the market. And I know a lot of people in the US and here in Asia who dump iPhone because of those blue legos. Flash is hurting iPhone more that the other way around at this time.
That's why Apple sued HTC. Because more and more smart phones that are better will compete with iPhone ...most probably would lead to sales decline and with in them makes it more attractive especially for application development.
I repeat US is not he world. Unless iPhone beats Nokia worldwide, then begin your doomsday prediction. But that is unlikely to happen. I predict iPhone decline in 5 years time. That is more likely(iphone decline) than Flash decline. Wanna bet? In Asia it has reached it's non impressive peak and is beginning to decline.
Thank you Nostradamus! Let's what happens in 5 years...
Flash is not hurting the iPhone at all... I never heard of anyone other than "anti-apple people" saying that "they will never get it if doesn't have flash".
I applaud Virgin decision to move away from Flash. I hope many others will follow.
And, BTW, iPhone vs nokia doesn't seems like a fair battle, after all you're comparing a product to a company, but if you look at worldwide smartphone sales, the iPhone is gaining marker while nokia is losing, so in 5 years you may see iPhone OS as the most used mobile OS out there... If it takes 5 years.
And finally, I do not believe Apple develops its products aiming Asia. I believe they do with NA and Europe in mind. Sure Asia has lots of people living there, but most of them will never buy an iPhone. They will stick with their HiPhones.
This is fantastic news!!! Flash should be OUTLAWED IN AMERICA FOR DISCRIMINATION AGAINST DISABLED PEOPLE! Visit http://www.flashsucks.org to see the real reasons why Flash is so horrible! For starters, Flash DISCRIMINATES against DISABLED PEOPLE! If you're disabled, good luck trying to use a Flash-based website. Check out http://www.flashsucks.org for the full details.
March 03 2010 at 12:48 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyYou're right that many flash sites are unfriendly to disabled people (specifically the visually impaired). The same can be said of hollywood movies or maybe more appropriate: software applications. Not every kind of application lends itself to being made accessible to the visually impaired. Especially multimedia content can quickly stop making sense when you just read aloud what happens on the screen.
As with most websites, making a site accessible for screen readers is not a matter of the technology you use, but of the will to do so.
Flash is technically quite capable of making a screen-reader-friendly environment. Although it does take more effort on the part of the developer, it's mostly dependent on the type of content you present.
Barry Allen. The Fastest Man Alive.
March 03 2010 at 12:47 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyKING OF THE IMPOSSIBLE!! :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNf9rEPoc8Q
I love how much people can idealize a company. People are forgetting Apple is just one big corporation, just like the others, wanting to make more and more money. A friend of mine made a good point about iPhones not having Flash on them: it would compromise app sales. Just think about it for a moment! Almost everything could be done with flash, that can be done now with the SDK. But without it, the only way to go (legally) is the App Store. So I don't believe SJ's bullshit about Flash being insecure or inefficient. If it was Apple's interest they've had Flash from the beginning. So it comes down to money after all, and not costumer satisfaction: Apple would lose some of its App market. Period.
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