While Apple is being lamented here and there for not supporting Flash on its shiny new iPad – boy does Cupertino have a strong dislike for the platform – Adobe has already responded to the news on the official Flash Platform blog.
The blog post, unambiguously titled “Building iPad Applications with Flash”, is mostly just to remind people of the company’s Packager for iPhone product, which will enable developers to make Flash apps function on the iPhone / iPod Touch through a work-around whereby Flash apps can be easily converted into iPhone apps using Creative Suite 5 (CS5). Adobe also published a post on its Adobe Flash Platform blog addressing the apparent lack of Flash support in the iPad.
We’ve written before that this could turn 2010 into the year when approximately 2 million Flash developers could potentially start cooking up stuff for the iPhone en masse. You can now add the iPad to that, it seems.
The company notes:
We announced the Packager for iPhone at MAX 2009 which will allow Flash developers to create native iPhone applications and will be available in the upcoming version of Flash Pro CS5. This technology enables developers to create applications for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad (though applications will not initially take direct advantage of iPad’s new screen resolution). It is our intent to make it possible for Flash developers to build applications that can take advantage of the increased screen size and resolution of the iPad.
For that latter part, Adobe points to this article by Christian Cantrell, Product Manager and Application Developer on the AIR team. The article goes in depth about how developers can build apps using Flash with authoring with multiple screen sizes and resolutions in mind.
Update: Adobe’s definitely frustrated with the non-Flash policy at the Apple headquarters. Read ‘Apple’s iPad — a broken link?’.
You won’t be able to fire up, say, Hulu through your browser on the iPhone or iPad any time soon, but Adobe appears determined to show the world that Flash has its place on Apple’s products one way or the other.
And it’s also sending a message to Flash developers that they can and should stick to the platform rather than look at other ways to join the App Store goldrush.
Yay! This is fantastic news.
Yes we’ve heard about this blasphemies over and over again.. hopefully they’ll stop now… The funniest thing is the one blurted out the the CEO of mahalo.. saying, the iPad will be insane like “wii” gee.. what a predicament! Details: http://bit.ly/apple-tablet-details-and-history
Why doesn’t adobe start using html5, an open standard? It reminds me of Aol not willing to change when broadband access started creeping in, everyone at Aol was stuck saying dialup is the only way users will access the internet, not willing to change when all signs pointed to innovation. Adobe needs to stop fearing the future and embrace it. You build great authoring tools, I’m sure you can build great html5 ide instead of continuing to fight with open standards.
Let’s try an analogy, consider a bank, Bank of Adobe, starts issuing currency (flash platform) from their bank. Along comes another bank, Bank of Microsoft, that want to start issuing their own currency (Silverlight). And then there’s also the Bank of Sun issuing their own currency (Java). And so on and so forth. The economy will be flooded with everyone issuing their own proprietary version of applications that do the same thing. Wouldn’t it make more sense if the community as a whole (ie federal reserve) collaborate and issue one common currency (html5). That is the true open network, not supporting the growing number of platforms companies come up with, there will be no end to it and soon the web won’t work with all the glut in platforms. It’s already starting to get crazy, some sites won’t work without java, or silverlight, or flash, or.. etc etc..
You shoud do Flash Player for jailbreakers despite of lamentig about Apple stupid policy.
I want Hulu on the iPad. I don’t need more apps, I need access to Flash content that is pre-existing.
Ipad will cost $499 dollars it’s like iphone but bigger.
no ipad anmore
I agree. Hulu is the reason I want Flash. I don’t care about Flash ads on websites, I care about video streaming services like Hulu.
Hulu is working on a site that doesn’t use flash, so iPads, iPhones and iPods Touch will be able to access it. I see big trouble for Adobe, if sites like Hulu creates non-Flash site versions only to reach apple customers there is a chance that the need for flash will decrease to the point people wont care missing it.
What about for the PS3? One of the reasons Hulu doesn’t work for the PS3 is because of the lack of support for Flash 10 on the PS3. Hulu also blocks PS3 access, but if they are working on a non-Flash version of Hulu, will they remove their PS3 blocker as well? I hope so.
Hulu on an iPad will be really nice for me.
Me too – Hulu or bust!
Oh I forgot – Netflix, too.
Netflix works on Microsofts Silverlight, thats a whole different can of worms there.
Meanwhile a service Hulu isn’t likely to ever switch over to HTML5, since part of the video tag spec is that you can right click any video and save the source. That’s not something that any large media company is going to want, when they want to protect their content.
I can imagine. Could they write an iPad app though? I’m not familiar enough with Hulu or the iPhone SDK to know if that would work.
You Tube uses Flash and there is an app on the iPhone that converts the video to H.264 and sends it to the iPhone. There is no reason Hulu couldn’t do the same thing and they could make a fortune off the app charging a couple of dollars for it. Millions in revenue and not have to charge for content plus the ad sales for commercials. Then it is an easy step to convert it for the iPad. They already have Hulu Desktop for PC and Mac so you don’t have to go to the web to watch TV.
NO FLASH! What the hell would I want an iPhone that doesn’t fit in my pocket!? I was thinking that I could buy the iPad for my reps to take online account orders but morel-eyewearusa.com is FLASH! Apple just lost 37 sales!
Adobe if you want to get more developers and grow your ‘angst’ against Apple, maybe you should price your products more competitively so you can grow your voice in the marketplace. With HTML5 people are starting to think that they don’t need Flash anymore AT ALL. The more that becomes true, the more people will start to accept that the Flash platform should be shunned.
AT&T and Google (and perhaps Verizon) have made concessions to get on the platform bus in the past, maybe if you would approach them from that perspective you would get more than the cold shoulder. Well that and make sure that Flash doesn’t run like complete A$$ on Apple platforms…
Flex SDK is free. Flash Player is free. Flash has 99.8% penetration so it’s not a matter of growing your voice. It’s one thing to say HTML5 is so strong that we might consider no longer needing Flash, but that’s not the case. Flash is pervasive and HTML5 is barely out the gate.
It’s iTunes c*ckbocking, nothing more.
Flash player is free, but it’s not open sourced. SWF format is open sourced, but not the player. The player should have been open-sourced, so that Apple had a chance to tweak it to its satisfaction if THEY wanted to.
Everyone with this argument fails to realize that Adobe licenses proprietary video codecs to enable you to watch hulu and youtube, and pays a buttload to do so. These codecs cannot be open-sourced because the people that own the patents to them want to get paid.
The SWF specification is open, so anyone could conceivably create a Flash player, but it wouldn’t play most video on the web unless the creator also licensed the codecs. Until an open video codec becomes the standard for web video delivery, the flash player will have to remained closed, and not because of Adobe.
Then open source a version of Flash player that can do everything, except for playing those codes. The companies like Apple will then add closed-sourced modules for playback themselves, if they pay the license fees to the codec owners.
Can you explain to me how then HTML5 Youtube version works for me in Chrome? Chromium is an open source project. Is video rendering part not included in it?
@SutroStyle – Google licensed H.264 codec for use in their browser. This is a big contention with Mozilla and YouTube. Try going to the HTML5 version of YouTube in FireFox. It won’t work. Mozilla is part of the group that wants HTML5 video to be based on Ogg, not H.264.
HTML5 is definitely a feasible alternative. Vimeo just started offering a non-flash version last week.
http://vimeo.com/blog:268
Hulu needs to do the same.
Are you sure technical reasons and not business reasons are motivating Apple’s rejection of Flash?
The only reason Apple is not supporting Flash is that it is a good programming platform. Flash and Silverlight are good platforms to develop lightweight (and powerful) applications. Apple wants to maintain hold on all apps on the devices.
No wonder everyone is now trying HTML 5 based apps on the iPhone. Thankfully the Safari on the IPhone does support HTML 5.
It definitely breaks the “no scripting/dynamic languages” requirement of applications that run on the phone. You have to be a compiled applications and can’t be a ‘virtual machine’ for other apps.
Then there is the issue of performance. If Flash apps cause a MacBook Pro to spin its fan after heavy use, I can only imagine how they perform on iPhone OS.
If Apple joined the Open Source Project, they could tweak the source code to the Flash Player, like Google did to get Flash running smoothing for Android devices.
I think the issue has more to do with the fact that it’s opening the gates for a competitor for applications and media where Apple doesn’t get a 30% cut. However, Apple doesn’t seem to have a problem with Flash, when applications go through the iTune store.
Sorry but html 5 can't replace flash. They're two totally different technologies.
Good
Now if SilverLight can do the same and get me Netflix on my iPhone
I wonder if instead, the iPad will push HTML5 forward about 2 years.
I wonder if, instead, the iPad will push HTML5 development ahead 2 years.
No, no, no, no, no! Adobe, you HAVE to bend over backward, kiss Jobs ass if you have to, to get the Flash player in Safari, not as a lame-ass app packager. Re-write the code, re-hire all the engineers you have laid-off, pay Apple a big lump of cash, I don’t care. You don’t understand what is at stake here. There are a lot, I mean a lot of Flash content created over the years that are not banner ads. I’m talking about corporate traning, custom applications, reference materials that have been created that sits inside of the corporate firewalls. If this iPad thing becomes popular like the iPhone, you can bet your ass that we will be looking for HTML5 alternatives and stop buying your products.
no, they just have to make flash not use 85% of my processor resources…
That is my point of re-writing the Flash player to please Mr Jobs. I mean, Windows don’t have problem running Flash, just Macs and Linux.
Windows DOES have a problem, it frequently causes browser crashes. That’s a huge problem, and but one of the reasons so many regular end users hate, hate, hate flash.
I think the issue of flash in the iphone os will only be resolved once the all the iphones in use have a min of the iphone 3gs cpu.
Except that FLASH will not run on the iPhone.
This is a huge loss for Adobe… All the tracking, the flash shared objects, the whole shooting match for what makes Flash “Flash” is kept out.
Apple “owns” this town now Adobe… Perhaps you should not have held Apple hostage with Flash and Photoshop a few years ago… ;-)
Not having Flash on the iPod, iPhone and now the iPad is a major loss for Adobe, but it’s also a major loss for Apple too.
I would have considered the iPad if it came with a full OS. The iPhone OS gives me no control whatsoever. Nobody is going to buy that thing. Here’s looking forward to the new slate of Windows 7 tablets that should be coming out soon :)
The reference design that is the iPad will certainly inspire many clones. Apple can obviously close its gaps with a simple software update; but they are quietly opening the door for someone to come in here and really steal the show.
Like the HP Slate announced to cost “just under $1,500″? Good luck selling that against a similar $500 device from Apple–A company that people are used to paying MORE for similar devices.
No one is gonna buy that "thing" huh? It's not my opinion, but just do a google search to check the stats on that one. Also don't hold your breath on the Windows POS "coming out soon". You could even Bing the facts on that one. Another fact to add is Apple just passed Microsoft to jump to the second largest and successful American company right under Exxon (search it). I'm sure with that happening just a few days ago and the iPad release about a couple months ago that it's all a coincidence. Also in January of 2010 there was only around 10% of the web utilizing HTML5. After the announcement of the iPad opting out of ancient Flash and moving to HTML5 that number rose to over half of the web within only a few months and it continues to rise. The lack of Flash affects 0.002% of my life while on the iPad and iPhone. So I would argue and I firmly believe that Apple has suffered no major loss from this. I do however agree with you that the iPhone OS needs to give us more control over many more things. Which is why I'm very excited about the new OS 4 which will be released next week that's finally going to give us multitasking, native printer setup, and 100's of other things we've been screaming for forever. But let's face it. Microsoft, whom I've been a fan of since Windows 95, is becoming a dinosaur. With the exception of the Xbox360 (shout out to all my Call Of Duty buddies!) they seriously haven't done much that is original or that sticks or that doesn't have a million bugs crawling all over it. Microsoft is the next IBM. Mac stuff just works. They're not perfect and I sure ain't one of those that would kiss Steve Jobs feet. I'm simply just stating the obvious here. Seems that some people have a built in angst against Apple. I know people who feel the same about Microsoft. Both sides should speak up with factual debates. Oh wait that would be unfair to MS Tard Lovers. In the end I'm sure Apple buys Microsoft, Flash gets flushed, Ballmer comes out of the closet, and Jack Bauer becomes President. Nice to meat you!
Personally, I think Adobe should just forget about Flash, it’s pretty much done for once HTML5 drops.
Non-proprietary software ftw!
HTML5 has won yet not dropped?
Fanboy or fanatic…
Agreed. Flash is not only problem prone, but HTML5 will let you create just about any type of app that Flash lets you do. Don’t know about IE, but HTML5 works great in FireFox, Safari, and Chrome.
Don’t trust me, check out some impressive HTML5 demos:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2010/01/death-to-flash-3-great-html-5.php
This (Microsoft-sponsored) article is really grasping at straws….
When the iPad is released to the market in March, the vast majority of web sites that are currently using Flash will STILL be using Flash. They are not all scrambling to convert. That’s a going to be a very big hole in the iPads browsing capability – as people will expect a similar experience that they get on the desktops, laptops and netbooks. Instead, they will get empty boxes and plugin errors.
Also it should be noted that those gaps cannot be filled by packaged Flash applications. That is the hole that Adobe is filling with it’s app-packager. The browser will still not work ‘properly’.
What so many HTML5 visionaries fail to realize is that the cost of developing HTML5 is still too high versus the reward for most companies. HTML5 is not usable by Internet Explorer(59% of the market). So the only companies that will implement it will developer TWO versions of their site – one in HTML5 and keep the existing one in Flash. That’s a lot of effort for little apparent gain (in speed and CPU demand).
Certainly no new startups are going to develop in HTML5 and so smaller companies are going to waste the development effort changing something that already works.
Read my lips Adobe:
You need to open source your Flash PLAYER for Win and for Mac OS X asap
OR
your Macromedia purchase will be WRITTEN OFF.
It is already.
Where can I get the source code? Link please. SWF format is open source, but not the player itself.
There’s an open-source player available for SWF, it’s just not written by Adobe.
http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/
Flash – HTML5 – Apple. Check out this post by John Nack for a thorough rundown: blogs.adobe.com/jnack/
Great article – thanks for posting
You know, Adobe always rolls over and takes this from Apple, but I’ve never understood why they don’t push back. Adobe absolutely OWNS the professional creative market. There is no competition for Photoshop and Illustrator on the professional level.
So just threaten to pull the plug on Mac development of everything. Flash player included. Pro creative people still love the Mac, and it’s one of Apple’s big professional markets. See how long it takes for Apple to backtrack on the iPhone.
You’re not kiddin’. But forget threats. Just do it. Apple not supporting flash is in their interest and their interest alone. I actually like iphone, ipad, etc. But this is ridiculous… Adobe should be pissed that they even have to waste money repackaging Flash for iPhone.
Adobe, you pull support for Macs and I’m sure someone will gladly partner with you to make to take up the slack.
Because Adobe doesn’t see the need to stoop to the level of Apple and play games. They make their products available to everyone that will let them. Consumers benefit. Only a company like apple thinks they should tell people what web technologies they can use.
Interesting idea… As a consumer the lack of Flash support (specifically Flash video and Flash-enabled sites) is probably my single biggest reason not to buy an iPad. I am really disappointed by Apple’s lack of Flash support and its arrogant lock on content distribution. It doesn’t deserve the “i” in iPad without demonstrating the openness that defines the value of the internet.
The answer is simple- creatives work on projects for companies that will target this device. Adobe can complain a lot, but they really don’t have much leverage when you have billions of dollars in software revenue and millions of application downloads for the platform. They don’t HAVE to adopt the technology and they don’t really have a compelling business driver that would force them to.
I don’t WANT flash apps. I WANT flash support in a web page so I can see flash enabled sites. That’s the PRIMARY reason I have to go to the laptop because I hit a flash site that I can’t view.
Converting flash to iPhone apps is moot to me.
Exactly. Like almost every car maker website.
ONE BIG AMEN! Who runs Flash apps??? It’s about Flash-enabled webpages, stupid Adobe.
That saves a butt of many Flash developers that can develop for the platform.
Flash is so 90′s and its a bandwidth hog.
^ person who doesn’t understand how the internet works.
I’ve seemed to misplaced Steve’s home address, so given the error in his presentation today and the fact that somebody at Techcrunch would know him or at least somebody who does know him, can you make sure he gets my letter about Flash on the iPad browser ?
http://www.unitzeroone.com/blog/2010/01/27/dear-steve/
Flash packager is not Flash! Flash packager is like having Adobe Air only, but not have Flash in the browser.
We’ve been doing flash games for the iphone, converting flash one app at a time. It’s working out well for us. I’m sure that the iPad will be a great platform for flash, but not in the browser.
Ever notice that when you visit a Web site that has a Flash-based movie that it gives your CPU the ability to fry eggs? Flash is a throwback. It’s a train wreck, never designed to be kind to batteries. So you really want a technology on any handheld device that will cause your hands to spontaneously burst into flames?
Get real.
Fast-forward a few years from now, when HTML5 rules the day, and you’ll wonder what all the geek fuss was about.
The sooner Flash goes away, the better.
This I don’t get.
Yes, Flash sucks. Everyone knows it.
That doesn’t stop it from being the defacto standard for rich media on the interwebs. Not just things like Vimeo, Hulu, Dailymotion, etc, straight from the source but embedded video in blogs and then flash-based websites for consumer goods and entertainment venues. Like it or not, Flash is king.
I’m sick to death of all this sudden “But HTML5!” stuff from the fanboys. HTML5 video is barely in testing with places like Youtube or Vimeo, and doesn’t even work in Firefox (you know, the second most popular web browser) because they’re having a spat over codecs. Right now, right here, Flash is what makes the user experience more or less the same across platforms. No amount of wishing it away is going to change that.
This. HTML5 fanboyism is driving me nuts too.
I’m pretty technology-agnostic, I choose the best technology for the job. I’m working on a startup at the moment, which requires rich client functionality (like most Web 2.0 projects).
I don’t have the luxury of time to develop two versions – one in HTML5 and one in Flash. Given HTML5 will mean my startup won’t work for 60% of my users, I’m be a fool to develop using it. Plugins like Flash and Silverlight are the only tools that fit the job. Except far more users have the Flash plug-in installed that Silverlight, so it’s the #1 choice.
HTML5 evangelists really need to learn how businesses run. The only companies that adopt bleeding edge technologies like HTML5 are those that have it as a critical part of their business plan.
Tim, how come feature rich sites such as Gmail, Apple’s Mobile Me, or Netflix work perfectly with zero Flash use?
Or are you strictly referring to video?
Further, it’s a pretty transparent attempt to force people to use the App Store over free web alternatives powered by Flash.
What makes you think Apple would support full-featured HTML5 multimedia on a closed device anyway? Their entire ecosystem is about buying things on their terms, so even IF flash died a horrible death as you wish, why would Apple just open the door to being crowded out by a free web? That’s naive.
Flash Gaming would be incredible on the iPad. To bad its not supported.
Flash is an amazing piece of software and has enabled a whole avenue of gaming on the web. These games are played by millions of people a day and it could have found a new audience in the iPad.
You guys realize, that Flash offers APIs to developers that cannot be supported on the iPhone by design?
Flash’s UI paradigm is made for classic operation systems which is incompatible with the new multitouch paradigm of the iPhone and iPad. Case in point: There is no way to track cursor movement on the iPhone because there is no cursor!
Even if Apple wanted to support Flash, they could support only part of it at most, and what impression would “kinda works sometimes” on the users?
I’d prefer not to have Flash slow the loading of my web experience or crash my browser. Hopefully Apple will keep it off the Phone and iPad.
If Hulu / Netflix want to distribute on the iPhone / iPad, they should develop an app for the platform.
A web browser that does not support Flash is not a web browser. Anyone who says HTML5 is going to replace Flash is out of their mind. Maybe in 10 years, but until then, Flash will dominate multimedia delivery on the web. The lack of support on Apple’s part exposes the iPad for what it truly is … a glorified e-reader.
Since when did Flash what a browser is and isn’t? To me a browser is something that renders HTML, CSS and JS. Flash is just annoyance that refuses to die and instead taking our CPU for a rollercoaster ride every time it is invoked.
A web browser without flash is a web browser that doesn’t crash and/or suddenly take up 100% cpu for no reason.
There are people that won’t even install flash because of this. I use flash block myself, so it’s off by default, but I can selectively turn on objects if I want to.
A browser is a portal to the internet. Flash is one of the most heavily used internet technologies, accounting for a large part of rich multimedia interactivity. Without support for this, the browser becomes less of a portal and more of a keyhole. Apple is usually praised for it’s vision, but it’s long term strategy has always been myopic and solipsistic.
I know Flash can cause spikes, but that’s usually due to poor implementation. I’ve never had it crash my browser. You must run on Mac.
For the record, I’m not praising Flash as being the end all of internet tech. Personally, I feel that 95% of the implementations I’ve seen are garbage. However, there are cases where Flash and Flex serve useful purposes and provide functionality that no other tech can provide.
In my opinion, the biggest downside of the iPad is that it can’t run multiple apps at once. That’s just ridiculous. Android will continue to embarrass the iPhone OS.
absolutely agreed. glad finally someone realistic is here
I totally agree, without Flash the Ipad is just a giant ipod touch. Why have a web browser and you can't enjoy interactive media content. That's one of the reasons I will never buy a Ipad. When I first heard about the Ipad, it didn't have Wifi capability and didn't support Flash, I thought, how useless. Then I started to see commercials and they're trying to make it sound as if it's a lid-less laptop. Shame on Apple.
What a loss for the iPad, for Apple not to be able to view flash content on websites. Just plain stupid.
HTML5, HTML5, HTML5, quit that bullshit, by the time browser with HTML5 support get enough penetration for serious company to even think about switching to full HTML5, Flash and/or Silverlight will be one or two step ahead of the game in terms of features that users need.
It’s a nice things, but when you see how many people are still on IE7/6, any serious company cannot drop them from their target.
In two years, ActionScript4 will be out, the flash plugin will be optimized, and the rising number of AIR application is just a huge proof of flash will not die any soon.
Two years? God I hope not. I’m using it today for production code.
Flash / actionscript is a programming language. Developers can create fully-functional applications (games) using the platform.
If apple allowed flash on these devices, developers could bypass the App Store by creating a webpage with an embedded flash app.
This is the reason that flash is not supported on the iphone/itouch/ipad. Apple needs to retain control.
Thank you John, you have well and truely hit the nail on the head! Android 2.2 runs flash so why cant Apple do it!
Spin has no place in technology. This rings of desperation from Adobe and is not an appropriate use of Flash by developers. I’m a fan of Adobe Flex, but with the bugs in the player and the political spin from the management, that probably won’t last.
The web pages that have taken the longest to load and caused the most crashes have been heavily Flash based. And if the website does not crash Safari, there’s little processing power left to do much else.
I have had to use an app ClickToFlash that allowed me to selectively load Flash content on a web page so that it didn’t grind Safari to a halt or crash it.
I have found alternate websites that provide me the same if not better information that do not use Flash and these sites load a lot faster and Safari rarely if ever crashes.
Say what you will, but the iPhone seems to have done OK without Flash. Whatever the real reason Apple’s not supporting it, it IS a resource hog and frankly, Adobe needs to make it leaner.
And for everyone loving the HULU, it won’t be long til they’re charging you for it. Rupert Murdoch doesn’t like giving anything away.
I can deal with not having flash on my iPhone. The screen isn’t big enough for most content and I’m more than certain it wouldn’t handle it anyway.
So, the iPad. “Best Internet Experience Ever”. “The Internet in your hands”. “Screaming fast custom processor.” It’s more or less a keyboard-less netbook, yet it doesn’t offer a definiting feature of the desktop internet?