Ben Parr’s article on mashable.com has caught my eye this week. It explains how the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement is effectively banning the use of the Flash-to-iPhone converter. This license agreement change is down to Apple’s continuing lack of support for ‘Flash’ on the iPhone. Some call it a ‘feud’ between Apple and Adobe.
Flash can be installed on Apple desktops and laptops but it’s crazy that the iPhone and the revolutionary new iPad will not allow Flash components to be installed on them.
The world wants to access the internet from almost any device and with the iPhone becoming more and more popular, it’s confusing why Apple don’t want to add Flash support. As the name suggests, the ‘i’Phone should be capable of browsing the whole of the internet, not 60-70% of it when you exclude all flash content-driven websites (data taken from flashmagazine.com)
So, here’s the big question, will Apple and Adobe sort out their differences and give consumers what they expect from the iPhone? If not, the lack of support could hurt both companies and more importantly give rise to iPhone competitors.
UPDATE: Rumours on the internet have recently speculated that Flash could be forcing it’s way on to the iPhone if the article at itworld.com is to be believed.
UPDATE 10th Nov 2011:
Flash have announced the mobile version of it’s software is no longer being developed for phones. The company are now looking at HTML 5 technologies as a replacement. This decision also raises a question mark over the continuation of Flash on desktop PCs, especially now that Adobe have also announced 750 employees to be cut from Europe and America. Could this then be the beginning of the end for Flash?
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