Apple CEO Steve Jobs today posted a rather lengthy open letter on why Apple has decided not to use Flash on its iPhones, iPods and iPads. Job cites a number of reasons:
- Flash is only available from and controlled by Adobe, making it a closed system.
- More and more video content is moving to the newer H.264 format and HTML5 making Flash increasingly less relevant.
- Reliability, security and performance concerns: Flash is the number one reason Macs crash and Symantec described Flash as having one of the worst security records in 2009.
- Flash still relies primarily on software video decoding, significantly impacting battery life.
- Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. Most Flash-driven user interfaces do not work well with touch input.
- Flash is part of Adobe’s cross-platform development strategy. As a result, it limits Apple developers’ ability to write apps optimized for Apple mobile devices.
He concludes:
Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.
It looks like the war of words between Adobe and Apple is not quite done yet…