Adobe: We won't spend any more time on Flash to iPhone features

This whole thing is a travesty. Ignorant people are proclaiming that html5 will/can serve their video needs in the future. But what about all the other wonderful flash creations and the people that create them? I see a few problems with this issue.

1. Flash video absolutely revolutionized the content of the web. Before it, the internet was a drab place with abhorrent download issues when it came to video, not to mention all the proprietary codecs and video players you had to find just to view it. Flash also made access to producing web content, video, and uploading it easier then ever for more people then ever. Maybe html5 continues this trend, but maybe it kills it. We don't know yet. HTML5's code can be considered just as proprietary as anything else can. It apparently is already excluding Flash. What will it exclude next. There is nothing open about html anything; just barriers, controls, and limitations. Always has been.

2. When you talk about blocking Flash Iphone app creation, you are not just talking about blocking flash video content. Sure, that might be a big part for those consumers that only use the web for entertainment videos. But Flash content creators include animators, designers, and application creators that produce some wonderful items that would be great on an iphone. Right now, those creators know something called actionscript, and use that to create these wonderful items. Many do not know the first thing about creating applications with C+. So blocking this move by adobe is just keeping all these new content creators out of the loop. Basically, this makes Apple's move a controlling and limiting move, not an open and fair move. All Adobe was doing was giving more creative people, more access to creating iphone applications. Nothing more.

3. Apple owes it's life to education facilities that pushed their products on their students. A very large portion of Apple's sales come from design schools where Adobe software products are king in design production. This means a large portion of Apple computer users are Adobe users and content creators. For these two companies to be blocking each other is ridiculous. They have each been built up from each other.

I am a content creator/designer that uses Flash. I know actionscript and many other web languages. But that keeps me busy enough. I don't want to add C+ to that equation. When I first heard that cs5 Flash would support the creation of iphone apps I was overjoyed. Now this problem arises and kills it off. I couldn't be more angry about it.

I own two Mac computers and one PC. I've probably gone through ten or so Macs over the years. I've bought two generations of the iphone because it revolutionized phones. This idea by adobe was going to give me access to creating my own apps for it. Was...

Over the years, Apple's drop the past and move on mentality has cost me thousands as their software never bothered to be backwards compatible with older items you maybe just purchased a couple months prior. We were constantly forced to purchase new equipment, and we did. Well, maybe no longer. Maybe it's time I dump this control freak company, Apple, and all it's products. Apple, I give you two months to fix this problem you have created with Adobe. Then I'm gone.

I don't have Apple stock and I have no issue with the lack of Flash. On the iphone or the ipad. I abhor Flash based sites because they are typically cheesy and are rarely accessible (in an ADA sense). I abhor Flash ads because they are a nuisance. Don't play the games. And the video, well, I know that the other side will make an app so they don't lose the audience. just as ABC did, just as Netflix did, just as Hulu is doing. or they will embrace html5 just as CBS is doing. If if they don't, I can always watch those on my desktop if they are that important.

Flash is not natively touch friendly. Developers that work with it admit this. And the potential bugs of putting touch on top of Flash are numerous enough that they understand the denial by Apple. That's good enough for me.

Regarding the piss poor performance of Flash on the Mac, the irony is Adobe prides itself on the fact that it uses the same code for both Windows and Mac versions.

Yet most of us would agree that Mac applications that are ported from Windows are like a pig wearing lipstick. Nobody's being fooled. They stink. It's just plain lazy.

Yet John Gruber's answer below is likely the biggest reason and makes the most sense to me. After reading it, I think the argument is settled in my mind as to why Apple won't let you just toggle Flash on and off as some users have suggested.

http://daringfireball.net/2010/04/why_apple_changed_section_331

@Scott Cook Did you even read the article? The paragraphs regarding the Flash 10.1 plug-in that Apple was responding to?

I know you think you're being clever by spouting off about Kool-aid, and "spokesidiot", but when you don't even take 5 minutes to read what you're commenting on, you just come off as an insufferable tool.

do you think apple and all these blogs enjoy covering this pointless debate over and over again? if it was just concerns of keeping a lock on monetary streams i dont think apple would be that concerned about it. How does flash really hurt their bottom line? what people are going to watch stuff on hulu more? explain youtube? granted youtube doesnt host full episodes of shows on it but i dont think apple is stupid enough to believe that all the people that want hulu are just going to pony up the dough instead on ITMS. Flash sucks, in its current state it has no place on ANY mobile platform. Yeh yeh "give users the choice" no because that equals more headaches when those same users have NO idea that its flash causing all the problems and decide to blame them on apple instead. im sure they get enough headache about safari being "buggy" when 99.99% of those crashes are flashes fault.

Cydia is open source yet apple doesnt want it on the app store LOL

As much as i wanted to say flash would run great on iphone it doesnt.. I have tested the CS5 release version compiled to iphone 3G and ipod touch 2G and the framerate on a simple animated png is very choppy.

The 3rd gen ipod touch seemed to run it pretty good and i tried playing with CPU and GPU settings in flash but it made no difference.

I hope there are some best practices i can review online to verify i did all i could to run well, but right now im pretty upset.

The videos did show some potential for air to run on android platforms fairly well, but i'll wait till i see it in person to comment after my tests today :/

I don't care if iPhone/iPad support Flash video or games. I _do_ care that there is functionality at my bank's site (and other similar sites) that I can't use because Apple won't allow Flash. I _do_ care that there are functions of my employer's intranet (work related sites and tools) that I can't use because Apple won't allow Java.

It is certainly Apple's prerogative to not allow these (even if it is other companies and not Apple that would do all the work). However, these sites aren't going to change from the way they currently do things to something that pleases Apple just because Apple says so, so that leaves me locked out, and as much as people say "Good for Apple to reject that horrible stuff", I can't say I'm happy about it. Yes, there are issues (fewer than Steve claims - I believe most of the rejection of Flash and Java (and Adobe AIR and MS .Net and Silverlight) is Apple wanting to retain control and probably protect revenue streams rather than actual technical concerns), but that doesn't change the fact that there are things I want/need to do that I can't, that won't/can't be fixed in ways that satisfy Apple's restrictions, and that would cost Apple nothing from a development point of view as others will do (or have already done) the work. If there are concerns about battery life or stability, let me explicitly say that I understand and am willing to live with the consequences, and allow it...

I wish Apple would just buy Adobe already. While keeping Flash off of the iProducts is a good thing in order to keep performance up, what is wrong with making it an option to turn it on or off in the settings, much like 3G, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi?

Also, losing the ability to author iPhone apps with Flash is an extremely bad decision. There are a lot of people out there who know Flash. I'd like to see some figures on the percentage of iPhone apps that were made (at least partially) with Flash.

So, trolltard, what do you have to say about the Android phone whose battery dropped 25% after 10 minutes of Flash usage?