Author:
Joe Hakooz
Category:
General
Although it has been presumed for some time, Steve Jobs finally went public about his war on Google and Adobe. Jobs declared Google's mantra "Don't Be Evil" as "Bulls**t", and accused Adobe of "Being Lazy". Jobs has vowed to defeat Google in the "phone business" and said Apple doesn't support Flash because "No one will be using Flash...the world is moving to HTML5". All of this on the heals of the recent iPad announcement. Personally, I believe Jobs may have just doomed the iPhone...
First of all, the only game changing web-enabled product Apple has is the iPhone. The Mac barely survived the past few decades and certainly no one will care about the iPad, an overpriced laptop sized iPod Touch. Really... what else could it possibly offer?
As an avid iPhone user, I am extremely disappointed in Apple's decision to not support Flash. I always thought the iPhone would be near perfect once they supported Flash player, but I guess they have decided to go the "less useful" route instead. And pissing off Google? Seriously Steve? Other than the number of 3rd party apps available, the best thing about the iPhone is it's nice integration with Google services like Maps, Gmail, and YouTube. Without that you're left with a cool looking device that barely operates as a phone. Let's be honest... the phone features of the iPhone are poorly implemented. The "5 click minimum" to make a call, the unusable speakerphone, or the "5 bars dropped call" are some of my personal favorites!
I also get a kick out of Jobs when he talks about the "closed" nature of Flash. This coming from the king of closed. Projects like Alchemy show that Adobe is at least interested in the idea of open source Flash technologies.
Surprisingly, the Linux community has come to Apple's defense citing poor Flash performance and the great coming of HTML5. Quick news flash... Apple has refused to collaborate with Adobe to improve performance on Mac. How can you improve performance on a platform when the platform refuses to let you in? And if Linux ever becomes a threat to an Apple product, do they really think Apple will give them a pass? It would certainly be a first. And finally, HTML5 sounds promising, and I don't know a Flash developer who disagrees, but it will be several years before HTML5 is widespread enough to be a viable development option. At that point, HTML5 "video" functionality will be 5 or more years old. Adobe Flash on the other hand will have evolved in ways we can only imagine.
With all of that out of the way, I have decided to give up on the iPhone the same way it has given up on me. Once my AT&T contract is up I'll be moving to a different mobile platform.
As a great poet once wrote... I know it was you, [iPhone]. You broke my heart. You broke my heart!