By Dow Jones
Apple Inc. (AAPL) has published on its main Web site a memo
signed "Steve Jobs" that, in uncharacteristic fashion, details
Chief Executive Jobs' and Apple's opposition to the use in some
Apple products of Flash, the technology from Adobe Systems Inc.
(ADBE) that is broadly used to create video and animation content
on the Web. The complete text appears below.
Thoughts On Flash
Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met
Adobe's founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple
was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language
for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned
around 20% of the company for many years. The two companies worked
closely together to pioneer desktop publishing and there were many
good times. Since that golden era, the companies have grown apart.
Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn
to the corporate market with their Acrobat products. Today the two
companies still work together to serve their joint creative
customers--Mac users buy around half of Adobe's Creative Suite
products--but beyond that there are few joint interests.
I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe's Flash
products so that customers and critics may better understand why we
do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has
characterized our decision as being primarily business driven--they
say we want to protect our App Store--but in reality it is based on
technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and
that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me
explain.
First, there's 'open.'
Adobe's Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only
available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their
future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe's Flash products are
widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are
controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By
almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.
Apple has many proprietary products too. Though the operating
system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly
believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open.
Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and
JavaScript--all open standards. Apple's mobile devices all ship
with high performance, low power implementations of these open
standards. HTML5, the new web standard that has been adopted by
Apple, Google [Inc.] (GOOG) and many others, lets web developers
create advanced graphics, typography, animations and transitions
without relying on third party browser plug-ins (like Flash). HTML5
is completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of
which Apple is a member.
Apple even creates open standards for the web. For example,
Apple began with a small open source project and created WebKit, a
complete open-source HTML5 rendering engine that is the heart of
the Safari web browser used in all our products. WebKit has been
widely adopted. Google uses it for Android's browser, Palm [Inc.]
(PALM) uses it, Nokia [Corp.] (NOK, NOK1V.HE) uses it, and RIM
(Blackberry) [Research In Motion Ltd.] (RIMM, RIM.T) has announced
they will use it too. Almost every smartphone web browser other
than Microsoft's [Corp.] (MSFT) uses WebKit. By making its WebKit
technology open, Apple has set the standard for mobile web
browsers.
Second, there's the "full web."
Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot
access "the full web" because 75% of video on the web is in Flash.
What they don't say is that almost all this video is also available
in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and
iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web's video, shines in
an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering
perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add
to this video from Vimeo, Netflix (NFLX), Facebook, ABC (DIS), CBS
(CBS), CNN (TWX), MSNBC, Fox News (NWSA, NWS.AU), ESPN, NPR, Time,
The New York Times (NYT), The Wall Street Journal, Sports
Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others.
iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren't missing much video.
Another Adobe claim is that Apple devices cannot play Flash
games. This is true. Fortunately, there are over 50,000 games and
entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free.
There are more games and entertainment titles available for iPhone,
iPod and iPad than for any other platform in the world.
Third, there's reliability, security and performance.
Symantec [Corp.] (SYMC) recently highlighted Flash for having
one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand
that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been
working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted
for several years now. We don't want to reduce the reliability and
security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash.
In addition, Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We
have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a
mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have
never seen it. Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a
smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the
first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We
think it will eventually ship, but we're glad we didn't hold our
breath. Who knows how it will perform?
Fourth, there's battery life.
To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices
must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too
much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain
a decoder called H.264--an industry standard that is used in every
Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube),
Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies.
Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video
on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation
decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in
software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example,
H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in
software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully
drained.
When websites re-encode their videos using H.264, they can offer
them without using Flash at all. They play perfectly in browsers
like Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome without any plugins
whatsoever, and look great on iPhones, iPods and iPads.
Fifth, there's Touch.
Flash was designed for PCs [personal computers] using mice, not
for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites
rely on "rollovers," which pop up menus or other elements when the
mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple's revolutionary
multi-touch interface doesn't use a mouse, and there is no concept
of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to
support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their
Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and
JavaScript?
Even if iPhones, iPods and iPads ran Flash, it would not solve
the problem that most Flash websites need to be rewritten to
support touch-based devices.
Sixth, the most important reason.
Besides the fact that Flash is closed and proprietary, has major
technical drawbacks, and doesn't support touch based devices, there
is an even more important reason we do not allow Flash on iPhones,
iPods and iPads. We have discussed the downsides of using Flash to
play video and interactive content from websites, but Adobe also
wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on our
mobile devices.
We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer
of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately
results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and
progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third
party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage
of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to
adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party
deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to
our developers.
This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross
platform development tool. The third party may not adopt
enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of
their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the
lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we cannot accept
an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations
and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor's
platforms.
Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe's
goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps.
It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps. And
Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple's
platforms. For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for
almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks
ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party
developer to fully adopt Mac OS X.
Our motivation is simple--we want to provide the most advanced
and innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to
stand directly on the shoulders of this platform and create the
best apps the world has ever seen. We want to continually enhance
the platform so developers can create even more amazing, powerful,
fun and useful applications. Everyone wins--we sell more devices
because we have the best apps, developers reach a wider and wider
audience and customer base, and users are continually delighted by
the best and broadest selection of apps on any platform.
Conclusions.
Flash was created during the PC era--for PCs and mice. Flash is
a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they
want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power
devices, touch interfaces and open web standards--all areas where
Flash falls short.
The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for
Apple's mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer
necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And
the 200,000 apps on Apple's App Store proves that Flash isn't
necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically
rich applications, including games.
New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5,
will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should
focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less
on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.
Steve Jobs
April, 2010
-MarketWatch; 415-439-6400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com