Steve Jobs on why Flash is not on the iPad
In what will undoubtedly be the hit read of the week, Steve Jobs has written a fantastic piece on why Apple has not included Adobe Flash in their mobile devices. One thing that resonated with me the most as it applies to PhotoCine News readers is his comment on H.264 and how web browsing via an Apple mobile device does not hinder a users access to the web as Adobe suggests.
Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web’s video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video.
When the convergence of photography and motion started a little over a year ago, the only anxiety about the emerging medium was the same I had for the overall future of web based video; that we would all be dependent on the technology of a single company to play our movies. On the one hand is the evolution of a new type of filmmaking not dependent on the Hollywood system to get distribution. On the other loomed the potential for a hug power position by one company holding the proprietary key to let the content be seen.
I’m not suggesting that Adobe would have maliciously stifled anyones efforts. But to have a great filmic idea or technique neutered because of the limitations of a third party platform with a monopoly on content display would have been an anchor to a rapidly evolving medium.
