Do These Videos Prove Steve Jobs Was Right About Flash?
By: Hillel Fuld
Is it just me or is Apple digging its own grave lately? I feel like all the amazing marketing and PR they have done over the last decade are going down the drain with all the recent developments surrounding the iPhone 4. First there was the whole Gizmodo drama and more specifically the Apple reaction of sending law enforcement officers over to Jason Chen’s house to seize his computers… I mean, with all due respect, it’s a phone, and a phone that is coming out in two weeks time anyway, so relax there Steve.
Then there were all the issues with the iPhone 4 and once again, Apple’s ridiculous response of “Don’t hold the phone that way” and their more recent response of “There really is no problem with reception, just a problem with the phone lying to you about your reception”(see the hilarious picture below of an iPhone 5 preview, originally posted here). How do they get away with this stuff?
The effects of all these stories are yet to be seen, but I do think it will hurt Apple in the long run. However, one more story that was covered by anyone and everyone, but was actually handled well by Apple (in my opinion of course), is the issue of Flash on the iPhone platform. We all heard about the epic battles between Adobe and Apple. We all feel the lack of Flash on our Apple devices (see the totally awesome cartoon below on the matter), but who is right?
Is Adobe being honest here when they say there are no technical issues preventing Apple from adopting their technology? Is Jobs being straight with us when he says there are no political issues here and the only reason Apple does not implement Flash on their devices is purely technical?
Truth be told, we will never really know what the bottom line is, but like most things in life, it is probably somewhere in the middle. However, I will say that as a person who spends endless time on computing devices throughout the day, there is absolutely no question that the product that causes the highest number of crashes whether in Chrome, on a Mac, or even on other mobile phones, is Adobe’s Flash plugin.
Having said that, Flash is now available and working on Android devices and from what I have heard, it seems to be pretty stable…
Engadget recently posted two very interesting videos of browser speed comparisons between the iPhone 4 and the Nexus One running the newest version of the Android OS, Froyo. All in all, both browsers are pretty solid and speedy, and neither one blew the other out of the water. However, what stood out to me was the fact that the iPhone 4 won almost all the tests with Flash installed on the Nexus, and when Flash was unistalled, the picture was completely different. Again, the results were not too extreme, but they were definitely interesting and provided me with some food for thought.
Let me just throw this out there for a second. Assuming Flash on the iPhone would add a second or two to the process of opening Web pages, would that be something you would be willing to accept? On the one hand, a second is not the end of the world, but on the other hand, when browsing the Web, every second matters in today’s speedy world.
In any case, watch the below videos and tell me if you saw the same thing I saw or if it is totally inconclusive. Additionally, I would love to know if that extra second would be enough to justify Apple’s rejection of Flash in your opinion. Please let us know in the comments.
