The Flash plug-in for browsers has been the de facto king of Web video, interactive websites and annoying ads that get in your face since it was owned by Macromedia. So when it was announced the iPhone would be shipping without Flash -- and wouldn't ever have Flash on it -- a lot of people freaked out. Why was Steve Jobs being so mean? Android phones are getting Flash!
As the owner of one of those Android phones that has the Flash player installed, though, I can tell you why the iPhone's not getting Flash: It's awful. It runs horribly, and horribly slow. It's a crapshoot whether it works at all, on my phone from last year, and that's just to play a Web video. And Flash games like Robot Unicorn Attack? Right out.
Fortunately, a lot of these games and videos are available through apps like the YouTube one. That's how iPhone owners watch them. And it seems Adobe has finally accepted that.
Introducing the Flash Media Server
Don't be fooled by the headline on Boy Genius Report's article. Adobe's not bringing Flash anything to iPhones or iPads. Instead, website owners can buy these Flash Media servers for upward of $995, and they'll convert Flash movies into a form that iGadgets can use.
There are a number of downsides with this plan. One, it doesn't work on all websites; only the ones with owners who paid Adobe hundreds or thousands of dollars. And two, it costs hundreds or thousands of dollars. How many bloggers and restaurant owners are going to want to shell out $995 to $4,500 just so iPhone owners can watch ads in their web browsers instead of YouTube?
If anything, Adobe's given people a reason to use HTML 5 video, or movies that play outside of Flash Player. Flash was fun while it lasted, but it's going the way of the dinosaur. This "media server" thing is just an expensive kludge to artificially extend its lifespan, by milking businesses that are addicted to it.
But iPhones can't browse the full web!
Actually, iPhone owners will have a better web browsing experience than most Android phone owners. Instead of having their battery life drained by a choppy Flash video -- one that would just crash low-end smartphones like mine -- they'll get web movies in a format their iPhone can play without breaking a sweat.
Let's face it: It's been four years since the iPhone came out, and roughly three years since the first Android phone did. Adobe has had plenty of time to make Flash do its thing, and/or beg, plead, and cajole Apple into putting Flash on the iPhone. The Flash Media Server products show that it's given up, at least on the "persuade Apple" part. And the poor quality of the Flash experience on Android smartphones and tablets suggests that it may be wise for Adobe to give up there as well.
Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.
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