Adobe Responds to Steve Jobs' 'Lazy' Comments
Flash won't be replaced by HTML5 anytime soon, according to this CTO.
Earlier this month Steve Jobs made headlines when he declared that Google's "Don’t Be Evil!" motto was a load of crap and Adobe was just plain lazy. Now, Adobe doesn’t take kindly to that kind of talk and on Tuesday, CTO Kevin Lynch took to the Adobe blog to discuss the future of Flash.
Beginning with the snide snipe, "Some have been surprised at the lack of inclusion of Flash Player on a recent magical device," Lynch published a blog post defending Flash, which Steve Jobs said was pretty much dead anyway. According to Jobs, Flash will soon be obsolete because, "the world is moving toward HTML5."
Lynch points out that over 85 percent of the top web sites contain Flash content and Flash runs on over 98 percent of computers on the Web. "It is used for the majority of casual games, video, and animation on the Web and familiar brands like Nike, Hulu, BBC, Major League Baseball, and more rely on Flash to deliver the most compelling experiences to over a billion people," he writes.
Lynch also disagrees with the notion that soon HTML5 will replace Flash. "Some point to HTML as eventually supplanting the need for Flash," he writes, adding that he doesn't see it happening in the foreseeable future. Mr. Lynch claims that users and content creators could be 'thrown back to the dark ages of video on the web' if faced with the compatibility issues of HTML5.
"Adobe supports HTML and its evolution and we look forward to adding more capabilities to our software around HTML as it evolves. If HTML could reliably do everything Flash does that would certainly save us a lot of effort, but that does not appear to be coming to pass. Even in the case of video, where Flash is enabling over 75% of video on the Web today, the coming HTML video implementations cannot agree on a common format across browsers, so users and content creators would be thrown back to the dark ages of video on the Web with incompatibility issues."
And, in contrast to Steve's statement about Adobe being 'lazy' and not doing enough with its potential, Lynch says:
"We have shown that Flash technology is starting to work on these [Apple] devices today by enabling standalone applications for the iPhone to be built on Flash … This same solution will work on the iPad as well."
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According to Lynch Adobe is ready to enable Flash in the browser on these devices "if and when Apple chooses to allow that for its users," but to date Adobe has not had the required cooperation from Apple to make this happen.
Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.
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deltatux If only did the big companies like Apple and Google both allowed to use OGG as the HTML5 issue, Flash video really would be extinct and said standard would be in the forefront. However, Apple really needs to wake up and put Flash into its products. I can't think of a computer or device that I use that doesn't have Flash. Hell even typing on this Macbook I have Flash installed...Reply -
Silicon Jesus Yeah, no flash is a deal-breaker. It's why I don't run Linux on and therefore get little use of my iBook G4s, although Adobe is squarely to blame in this case.Reply -
grieve ""According to Lynch Adobe is ready to enable Flash in the browser on these devices "if and when Apple chooses to allow that for its users," but to date Adobe has not had the required cooperation from Apple to make this happen.""Reply
I believe this... Apple SUX! -
marsax73 I don't see how someone would be able to surf the internet without having Flash. It's used all over the place.Reply -
Zinosys Yup. I have flash on the macbook I'm typing on. The tables have turned. I don't think Adobe is the lazy one here...Reply -
Jazzmain Apple = NaziReply
Jobs = Hilter
There I said it, now we don't have to wait for the Godwin's Law to come into play. -
Zinosys That's what I just said. Apple is the lazy one..? What I was saying is that I have flash on my macbook, I don't see why Apple can't integrate flash into the ipad.Reply -
Tomtompiper Silicon Jesus, I amy running Linux with Flash and have had no trouble. When was the last time you tried Linux???Reply -
Apple might be more inclined to enable Flash on mobile devices if 90%+ of the Safari crash reports they receive weren't from the Flash plugin shitting the bed. Perhaps Adobe should try making a plugin that doesn't constantly fail and/or eat a core and change worth of CPU just to play video.Reply
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Zinosys Well, most of the crash reports were from running the PPC Flash plugin on Intel macs. I have a mac and flash, and they work just fine. Shockwave player (a component of flash I believe? :| ) is buggy, without a doubt.Reply