Jobs attacks Adobe Flash as unfit for iPhone
For iPhone users who've been wondering whether their devices will support Flash technology for Web video and games anytime soon, the answer is finally here, straight from Steve Jobs: No. In a detailed offensive against the technology owned by Adobe Systems Inc., Apple's CEO wrote Thursday that Flash has too many bugs, drains batteries too quickly and is too oriented to personal computers to work on the iPhone and iPad. This is not the first time Jobs has publicly criticized Flash, but the statement was his clearest, most definitive and longest on the subject. In his 1,685-word "Thoughts on Flash," Jobs laid out his reasons for excluding Flash the most widely used vehicle for videos and games on the Internet from Apple's blockbuster handheld devices. He cited "reliability, security and performance," and the fact that Flash was designed "for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers" as some of the reasons Apple will continue to keep the program off its devices. But he said the most important reason is Flash puts a third party between Apple and software developers. In other words, developers can take advantage of improvements from Apple only if Adobe upgrades its own software, Jobs wrote. Adobe representatives did not have an immediate comment Thursday. But in a March 23 conference call, President and CEO Shantanu Narayen said his company is "committed to bringing Flash to any platform on which there is a screen." That certainly includes Apple's devices, and Narayen said at the time the Flash ban "has nothing to do with technology." "It's an Apple issue and I think you'll have to check with them on that," he said.
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