DJ Meph (dot) Net

Steve Jobs released an open letter (what we city folk call a blog post) on apple.com today, explaining his reasons why Flash would not be included on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad devices.

You can read the blog p… open letter here:

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

Here are the key points that were brought up. (Thanks to my friends at Icrontic for breaking it down)

1. It’s a closed technology
2. Users aren’t missing out
3. Security flaws
4. Battery performance
5. Not touch-screen friendly
6. Not progressive enough for developers

I agree with Steve Jobs on most of these points, but he’s still wrong on so many levels.

Flash is a thorn in the side of the internet. It has been around for a long time, and many people are dependent on it for delivering content to their users. Web sites that use flash are taxing on hardware, not SEO friendly, not secure  for people who like to push buttons that allow web sites to invade their privacy, and a lot of Flash sites are simply obnoxious.

Flash was created long before Web 2.0, AJAX and CSS were widely popular. There was a need for displaying dynamic, interactive content on web sites and Macromedia (now Adobe) was there to meet that demand. In much the same way, before the iPhone existed, there was a need for a portable, mobile device that could deliver dynamic, highly interactive content and integration to users. Apple was there to meet the demands of the industry, and the entire cellphone industry has been shaped by the concepts they pioneered. Like Flash, the iPhone’s continued popularity is hinged on the fact that there are a shitload of apps available for it. There are now better phones, with better hardware and more efficient operating systems with multitasking support. Competitors have adopted more open standards and unified platforms. I anticipate that by the time Apple releases the fourth generation iPhone, it will already be obsolete and far behind the competitive curve, but people will buy it because they love the apps that are available exclusively to the Apple platform, as well as the interoperability with other Apple electronics.

What really bothers me about the letter is that you can almost take out every instance of the word “Flash” and replace it with the word “iTunes” and it would still work. iTunes is mostly an Apple-based platform that causes many instability problems on PCs. It is a closed technology that Apple has complete control over. People who don’t use iTunes aren’t really missing out, because there are plenty of better alternatives out there, like Amazon MP3, where you actually own a digital copy of the track you are purchasing. Unlike iTunes, Amazon cannot take your music away from you, prevent you from putting it on too many devices, or restrict the platforms that it can run on after you purchase it. iTunes’ continued success lies in the fact that there are so many people out there who already own a lot of music that can only be accessed through iTunes. Any developer of mobile devices who wants to include support for syncing with iTunes has to go through a ridiculous set of back doors and red tape to do it, whereas syncing with an Apple device can be done at the push of a button. I currently own a phone that was originally designed to sync with iTunes, until Apple locked my device out purposely through iTunes software updates. Did I mention it’s a closed standard?

By Apple’s own standards, they should no longer include iTunes support on their mobile devices.

Steve Jobs is really putting himself and his company at a huge disadvantage here. The market has been demanding Flash support on smartphone devices for a long time. Every major smartphone operating system has plans to include Flash support in the near future, except for Apple. Microsoft, Google, Palm, RIM and Symbian made up 82% of the smartphone market as of 2009 Q3. All of these companies will be adding Flash support by the end of the year. Apple makes up 18% of the smartphone market. When you combine their inability to meet smartphone market demands with their small piece of the smartphone marketshare pie, that doesn’t add up to any significant influence on the direction of the market.

With Flash coming to smartphones, it is anticipated that social media gaming will immediately get a boost from this new market. There are already millions of people engaged in interactive, online games like Farmville and Mafia Wars, which are based on Flash and available on social media platforms like Facebook and Myspace. These games will be immediately available to smartphone users who have Flash-enabled phones. Opportunistic Flash developers will see a new medium for expanding the social media gaming market, and it’s bound to take off. Apps for some of these games are already available in Apple’s App Store, but they are typically watered-down versions of the original, and sometimes you have to pay for them.

Steve Jobs pointed out in his letter that Flash was not touch-screen friendly, and that there’s no such thing as a rollover effect on a touch screen. He’s right, but he neglects to mention that rollover is not a feature that is proprietary to Flash, and has also been a big part of Javascript for a long time, a platform that Jobs’ touts as a better alternative to Flash.  Almost every content platform on the internet has been going through a design transition as touchscreen mobile internet devices become more and more popular. Why use HTML? Why CSS? Why Javascript? Nothing on the internet was designed to be used on touchscreen devices, but most of these platforms have been adapted to be more touchscreen friendly. Jobs seems to think that HTML5 is the way to go, but this completely goes against the entire essence of the internet, which is made up of multiple platforms, multiple standards and a very diverse development environment. Let developers decide which platform suits them best, and let them answer to their customers if they make the wrong decision.

No one should ever do anything based solely on Steve Jobs’ opinion. His opinions are always heavily influenced by the products he happens to be making a living on. Flash apps would be competing directly with the content available in the app store.

Steve Jobs also mentions H.264 as a viable alternative to streaming video content over flash. H.264 is a closed standard. Apple is a member of H.264′s licensing authority. Every time a license for H.264 is sold, Steve Jobs makes a buck. Robert Hallock at Icrontic points out:

H.264 is buried in a mountain of patents and copyrights which will demand exorbitant licensing fees after the “gracious” royalty-free period for web video ends in 2016.

This is a very startling revelation when you think that everything from smartphones to Blu-Ray players are currently dependent on the H.264 standard.

I speak for many web developers when I say that Flash is in need of a serious overhaul, or should be removed from the web altogether. That being said, we all depend on Flash for daily content over the web. Whether it be Youtube, Homestar Runner, Farmville, Google Video Chat, etc. a very large part of the web still depends on flash. Flash has a much bigger marketshare in the web than Apple has in the mobile device market.

This article is not just about the hypocrisy of Steve Jobs’ letter, or to tear down his logic and reasoning behind his decision not to support Flash. This letter is a microcosm of how Apple Computers operates as a whole. Steve Jobs has repeatedly said that consumers don’t know what’s good for them, and insists that he’s the only one who does. He rode in on a big horse, and captured the attention of people who weren’t good at using computers for many years. Steve Jobs’ has been behind some of the most amazing technological advances of the digital age, and to that we owe him a lot.

The technology industry, however, is fickle and ever-changing. Compaines are learning more and more that they have to throw out their old way of thinking often to adapt to changes in market demands. Steve Jobs filled a void in the technology market that forever changed the way we look at a piece of electronics. The problem is that while the market is still changing, Apple is not adapting well to those changes. Their recent release of the iPad is a great example of that. The iPad is a great device with many uses, but also with many restrictions. It won’t be long before there are a slew of competitors to the iPad that offer better hardware, more features and a better interface. As with everything Apple does, they executed the product launch well, but will suffer in their end-game.

I have gotten by my whole life without ever owning an Apple device. Until Apple changes their business strategy, and starts listening to the demands of the market they are trying to expand their share of, I refuse to buy into the hype that surrounds their products. Here is a list of things I would like to see Apple do:

• License Mac OS and the Apple mobile device OS. Open up competition among OEM competitors by enabling them to market their products with the Macintosh operating system. I could see them easily doubling their marketshare as a result.
• Fundamentally change the entire iTunes brand. Make it more cross-platform compatible, open it up for licensing to OEMs and give people more control of their purchased content.  Recognize that people who use iTunes are doing so by choice, and are paying for something that is extremely easy to acquire unlawfully. Even the lawful alternatives are proving to be more advantageous to the average consumer. The convenience factor of using iTunes with an iPod will eventually start to wear off.
• Stop fighting developers! No company has ever shown more contempt for application developers than Apple. If you want to write applications for Apple products, you have to do it on their often ridiculous terms. A very big part of Microsoft’s success story has been their consistent, healthy relationship with developers.
• Enough with the hypocritical diatribes. Every time Steve Jobs criticizes another product or company, he ends up poking holes in his own arguments by bringing up criticisms that can be attributed to his own company.

Jobs’ represents the next generation of snake oil salesmen. He is the king of bullshit. You can’t keep fooling people forever, it just doesn’t work that way. Apple’s business model depends on revolution for continued success. If they don’t start a new revolution soon, they are going to lose their marketshare to companies like Google, RIM and Palm. I think it’s great to introduce new products to the world based on ideas that very few people have thought of before, but there is a responsibility that goes along with that. Once your idea becomes popular, the market will demand and dictate the direction of your product. The more you fight it, the more inevitable your demise. Apple Computers can still continue to be pioneers of the digital age while catering to the demands of the marketplace, and it’s not too late for a change.