The iPad Flash Debacle
January 30, 2010
The emblematic blue Lego block that showed up on Jobs' iPad this Wednesday is making a whole lot of waves. Adobe, which is getting really upset about this whole deal, actually believes that Apple just wants them to fail:
It looks like Apple is continuing to impose restrictions on their devices that limit both content publishers and consumers. [...] Without Flash support, iPad users will not be able to access the full range of web content, including over 70% of games and 75% of video on the web. If I want to use the iPad to connect to Disney, Hulu, Miniclip, Farmville, ESPN, Kongregate, or JibJab -- not to mention the millions of other sites on the web -- I'll be out of luck.On another hand, if you look more closely at Apple's iPad commercials, the mobile safari they display features flash animations and many speculate that this could be some sort of a sign.
So what's the deal? Well, let's face it, in my opinion those images are just simulations and anyway, do you really still want flash on your iPad?
The concept of the iPad is to give you the best possible online experience, and honestly, Flash does not fit in there. Of course there is still a lot of content that demands it, but most of the time it's buggy, slow and just badly integrated. Time for html5!