Alright maybe it’s not true but lately it sure seems like Apple is out with a vengeance to take Adobe out of the game. Yesterday the NY Times published an article about the upcoming Apple iPhone OS 4 due out this June. There is a paragraph about APIs and functionality which seem to have targeted Adobe specifically. Adobe’s latest multimedia creation software can generate iPhone and iPad applications, however the new developer agreement implies this is now against Apple’s rules.
Developing an app using Adobe Flash would be much easier for many than developing the app in C,C++ or Objective C. The pros to Apple supporting this would be a greater influx of creative Apps for the Apple mobile platform. The obvious downsides though are potential lack of control and revenue for Apple and poorly developed Apps by the average Flash developer.
For the past few years I’ve been fairly vocal about my dislike for Flash especially on the Mac platform. I’m impatient and won’t wait around for a full Flash experiential website to load. Performance has always been an issue for the Flash plugin on the Mac platform. We are seeing the Internet be more about accessibility across many various platforms and devices as well as across multiple channels and search engines. Adobe Flash sucks at this. Building a Flash based website, for the most part, means having to be really creative to allow search indexing and to integrate with all the social networks out there. Sure it can be done but is the extra work required really worth it?
I’m all for competition and want the best technologies to prevail but I’m happy to see Flash taking a major beating lately and I’m looking forward to see what HTML5 and other technologies will bring to the table.