When Will Apple Cave And Accept Flash? http://tinyurl.com/4gphemz
To answer the question: probably never. What the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch have shown, 160 million users don’t seem to be having a problem in a Flash-free world.
I have been using my iPhone for years and my iPad for one year. I honestly can’t remember the last time I went to a Web site that wouldn’t load because I didn’t have Flash installed. I can load videos from YouTube and a host of other sites too, no problem.
Apple has sold more than 160 million iOS devices and there are no screaming, angry hordes of users breaking down the doors at 1 Infinite Loop demanding Flash on their devices.
In order for Apple to change its mind and adopt Flash, the technology has to be proven to be indispensable and that it will benefit its users. Apple has proven just the opposite is true.
I note that the current Safari version of ClicktoFlash automatically substitutes H.264 or other video and plays without Flash, if present. I rarely click on Flash in my brower, and never miss it on the iPhone.
11 replies on “When Will Apple Cave And Accept Flash?”
What sane individual could argue that Apple hasn’t been right about Flash? 4 years after the introduction of the iPhone, and only VERY recently have Android phones with “Full” flash started shipping.
Do I occasionally run into a site on my iPad that requires flash, sure… It would be great to guarantee that I could see EVERY site on the web, BUT I like that I don’t worry about crashes, CPU usage; and that I have a device that I only have to charge once every couple of days even better.
Only two things can happen here:
1. Flash will improve, become more stable and more power efficient. All other mobile devices support it, so designers keep using it, and ultimately the downside to upside sliding scale evens out to the point that Apple decides it can allow it, while maintaining the quality of experience and battery life users expect.
2. Flash remains slow to improve. Apple mobile products continue to grow in marketshare. Their users are the consumers you want looking at your website. Companies switch sites over to HTML5 so their execs don’t have to explain why you can’t visit their site on an iPad or iPhone. Flash’s prominence fades in the mobile market and ultimately it just goes away.
Which current device runs Flash mobile in an acceptable manner. None that I’ve seen reviewed. And it’s been kept off the Xoom during the review period? Coincidence? I don’t think so. There is limited support on some Android editings, but none currently work well and don’t kill battery life.
But it will get better. Flash on OS X is much better now than 2 years ago, but still keeps crashing my browser.
I honestly couldn’t say which phones. I know there was a lot of noise last fall about Android phones getting a new version of flash which supposedly allowed them to view broader flash content.
But then again, we all know that most Flash isn’t compatible with touchscreen input, so how much you’re really gaining I can’t say…
I do agree that it’s very telling that the Xoom will ship without Flash. Intentional or not, the benefit for Motorola is that the plugin’s affect on performance and battery life won’t see print in the reviews.
There was a lot of noise about Flash on Android phones, but it’s only actually available on one, and the reviews were, at best, “mixed”. Most slammed the poor playback quality and massive drain on battery life.
Hopefully never. Thats what HTML 5 and its coming additions are for.
I can’t tell you the number of times I have navigated away from web sites crippled with Flash content. I can ALWAYS find an alternate site that provides me a great iPad experience.
Considering how prevalent iDevices are, if you’re still using Flash on your web site it’s just costing you visitors. And when the next crop of iDevices hit, it’s going to get exponentially worse for you.
The Flash supporters are touting this study though from Transitions Inc.
http://dl.dropbox.com/0/view/qdzpyuwuq77hsiq/20110209-Android-FlashPlayer10.1-Performance.pdf
Streaming Media mentions it here.
http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/Editorial/Featured-Articles/Flash-Player-on-Android-High-Performance-Low-Battery-Drain-73833.aspx
Let all those that want flash buy Android. To be honest I simply don’t watch Flash ever. It’s blocked in every device and there’s nothing I want to watch that has to be watched in Flash. As I noted earlier, 63% of video on the web is not available in HTML5 compatible version. That’s a meteoric rise in the last 2 years.
Bio of Tim Siglin, author of the study.
http://www.streamingmedia.com/Authors/AuthorDetails.aspx?AuthorID=4240
Flash performance depends greatly on the platform. Here’s a screenshot of a Flash ad for Xoom using a disgusting amount of processing power on a quad core Mac:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/03/04/conan_obrien_spoofs_apple_ipad_2_event_as_a_little_bit_cocky.html Usage like that would be unacceptable on an iPhone, and Adobe have had years to improve Flash’s performance on OSX.
Flash IS an abomination. And wrecks the user experience. It is an appalling waste of our resources, causes so many crashes, frezes, hangs, resource drains to the point that machines I use (all highly spec’d) have to be closed down and rebooted often during the day to keep the business and machines running. The one which doesn’t use flash runs all day happily and well.
That Flash is ubiquitous on PC’s does not make it worthwhile.