Apple vs Flash vs Affino

A lot of our customers have asked us for our stance on the whole Apple vs Flash debate, and how this might impact on Affino. Most of you will know that Affino is underpinned by Adobe’s ColdFusion and utilises Flash, Flex and Air for a number of key Affino functions - parts of the Control Centre, the Dashboards and Media Editor for example. (Flex and Air = Dynamic Flash)

Many of our Apple-based users are somehow of the opinion that everyone has given up on Flash and is simply moving on to HTML 5. Well... let us set the record straight and attempt to unravel some of the myths, hype and falsehoods at the centre of this ’debate’.

At the core of this issue is the fact that Apple has chosen not to support Flash for its mobile devices, including the latest iPad family of devices. Moreover, Apple has issued strict terms within its developer toolkits, forbidding developers from utilising any of Adobe’s developer tools to help them to create their Apple applications. This is obviously a double blow for Adobe, and its millions of developer users - the key question is of course ’FOR WHOSE BENEFIT???’. Steve Jobs keeps on talking up the User Experience, and how ’buggy’ Flash affects the User Experience in such a detrimental fashion, that the only right thing to do was to ban Flash altogether.

The more ’true’ version though is that Apple seems now to be more concerned with profit margins and lining its own pockets than just the User Experience that used to be core to its values. I myself am an avid iPhone fanboy and do admire many of the technologies that emanate from Cupertino; I don’t even mind too much that my iPhone does not support Flash, at least I did not mind until my brother Markus showed me all the Affino Flash sites working perfectly on his Android 2.2 (Froyo) Nexus One Phone. As I have most of my needs rendered by individual Apps, I have not until now really missed Flash on my iPhone. For the iPad though, one of its key functions is website browsing, and how can it justify its efficacy in this area when there are so many websites you just cannot access on your iPad.

Deliberately omitting Flash, is not genuinely a User Experience decision, but more to do with Control. What Steve Jobs and Apple really want is to totally control their own ecosystem, and to moreover control every single revenue stream that happens within that ecosystem.

Flash

Flash is a huge global web applications platform, where the Flash player / ability is natively included in most available web browsers, and provides almost 80% of rich-media websites - Movie, Video and Music sites found on the Internet, as well as numerous Gaming Sites; and Flash is the key global format for rendering dynamic advertising. Removing Flash support from a website browser would be unthinkable in this current climate, yet Apple sees it fit to deliberately exclude Flash support from its mobile devices. If its Users could use Flash, they would have access to hundreds of thousands of ’Free’ Flash applications, for which Apple would not receive a penny of revenues or royalties.

Flash is too buggy!

Steve Jobs frequently states that Flash is too buggy, causes devices to crash and impairs the User Experience. This is largely down to the fact that Apple has specifically chosen not to work with Adobe to optimise and improve Flash compatibility and playback for its devices. For me, Flash is no more buggy than iTunes or HTML 5 - all have the ability to hang and crash and do so on occasion, and my worst computer experience - apart from a hard drive meltdown! - was related to iTunes - where iTunes one day decided to not recognise my iPhone - eventually forcing me to reset and re-load both; the iPhone then had to be reset to factory settings and it took a whole day to get all the Music and Apps back onto the phone and set up in good working order - Flash has never caused me anywhere near this amount of bother. You would have thought it was impossible to get Flash to work on mobile devices, but wait! What’s this! I can fully access and interact with all my favourite Flash sites on any number of Android OS Phones - as long as they are running the latest version of the software. It is quite evident that this is / has not been an Apple priority, and has nothing to do with technical limitations - this is purely a ’business’ decision.

HTML 5

Apple’s statement that HTML 5 is a replacement for Flash, is akin to saying that a bicycle is a replacement for a motorcar. HTML 5 is still very much in its infancy, and although it can render basic Video playback and some basic forms of animation, it is significantly behind what Flash can currently accomplish. Moreover, as a new technology it currently also has relatively very little support in terms of new applications and developer support. Within a closed ecosystem, Apple can avail itself of a few more clever bells and whistles, but there’s no denying that Flash is lightyears ahead of HTML 5 in ability and proliferation.

Advertising

As well as the hundreds of thousands of Flash sites, Free Apps and Games, Flash is also the dominant force for rendering dynamic Advertising, much of which is served by Google’s DoubleClick platform. Apple’s creation of the iAd advertising platform seeks to completely cut out Flash’s dominance in this area, and claim all the advertising real estate for itself. Utilising HTML 5, certain seemingly clever sequential animation ads can be created, but these again are way off the pace compared to some of the ingenious dynamics currently employed on the Internet by way of Flash. A particular favourite of mine is where you might be browsing a catalogue site, and then move onto a News or Magazine website - the ad banner there magically conveys anything you might have added to the shopping basket on the previous site, as well as the 5 or 10 of the most recently viewed items. This is again Apple making decisions - not based on universality or User Experience, but profit and control.

Universal Standards

Steve Jobs also goes on about how Flash is a closed standard, and he believes in Open, Universal standards like HTML 5 - when nothing Apple does is Open or Universal. You buy an iPad, but you cannot connect any universal device to it via the universal standard of USB port - NO - you need to buy one adapter per device you wish to connect to your iPad. Moreover there are millions of devices and developers and applications that already support Flash, about several million more than support HTML 5. This is again nothing to do with Universality - Steve Jobs and Apple are happy to utilise technologies which they can harness under total monopolistic control. Some people worry about Google becoming the Orwellian Big Brother of the Internet, whilst Apple - via iTunes has its fingers on people’s finances, and soon everything else - within a fully enclosed autocratic ecosystem - I am not in the slightest bit worried about personal analysis and control, but I am a huge believer and will fight for equality, equal opportunity and choice. What Apple always does is make things simpler by limiting choice - this obviously has an upside, but several very dark downsides also. I really cannot side with Apple in this argument - I side with the freedom of choice, not imposed limits. Whatever you might criticise Google for, it is still very much an Open system with multiple choices and options - which Steve Jobs pretends to aspire to, whilst the reality is that the Apple ecosystem is anything but Open and Universal ...

Steve Jobs

It has to be said that Steve Jobs has been totally disingenuous in his treatment of this whole affair. Shantanu Narayen, Adobe’s CEO, has several times tried to inititate a friendly dialogue with Steve Jobs on how to reach an amicable settlement and move things forward, but every single time, Apple has slammed the door shut in Adobe’s face. Apple have no intention of doing anything about Flash for now, which of course is totally unfair to the 2 million and rising iPad owners. I look upon a similar analogy being a Credit Card or Store Card which is deliberately limited to only be accepted in around 5% of outlets; so Apple is heading for ’Diners Card’ territory then. It cannot claim that the iPad offers the best browsing experience when so much of the Internet is off limits; make no mistake about it, the Internet is Flash as well - to a large degree. This is nothing short of active discrimination. Apple has obviously set out its stall, but I firmly believe they are onto a losing strategy here; even if HTML 5 was like for like, it is still nowhere in terms of proliferation and use. The iAd platform shows that Apple has considered its pitch, and has decided to gamble on HTML 5, and tried to force the industry to follow by bullying its way forward and making false claims. To all the Apple fanboys and fangirls out there, you should be aware that Apple is now by share evaluation the largest technology company in the world, having just recently pipped Microsoft with a $222bn share value vs Microsoft’s $219bn. Far from being a small, innovative bit player, Apple is now a global behemoth in mobile devices. Much like happened to Microsoft in the 1990’s, Apple will now find itself the focus of several anti-competitive law suits. As often happens with ’Big’ companies, they use their market leadership to bully and cajole their way forward, rather than being motivated by more altruistic goals. Apple has surely shown that this is all about the money, not the User Experience ...

Impact on Affino

Comrz and Affino are certainly not giving up on any of the Adobe technologies. We will be rolling out a simple HTML 5 format player - just to give our customers additional options - ’Choice’, but this will be a basic player, and is unlikely to contain most of the advanced functionality which can be found in the current version of the Flash Player. We always try to make best use of the evolving state of technology; and to that end, a lot of the Control-side panels which are currently Flash, can now be rendered more efficiently in AJAX / JavaScript. The Dashboard, Media Editor and Affino Chat elements will remain to be driven and evolved in Flex, as HTML 5 is still some way off achieving this degree of functionality.