Adobe got 7 million iPhone and iPod touch download requests for Flash in December
By Vlad Savov 
posted February 10th 2010 3:04AM
posted February 10th 2010 3:04AM
A touch of history might be appropriate here. Back in March 2008, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen proudly proclaimed that his team was about to start coding a Flash player for the iPhone, only for his company to promptly backtrack on those words a day later. Then, about this time last year, Apple and Adobe again announced that they were collectively working on putting the ubiquitous format on Cupertino's mobile devices, but you won't be surprised to hear that hasn't born any fruit yet either. In fact, relations seem to have grown a lot frostier thanks to the iPad's Flash-less introduction, and an escalating war of passive aggressive words culminated in Steve Jobs calling Adobe lazy. Lazy or otherwise, Adobe is keeping track of its download stats, and it's taken the chance to boast that it received a cool 7 million download requests for Flash player from iPhone and iPod touch devices during December. We're hardly shocked by this number, but it seems to illustrate well the fact that so long as the two heavyweights continue playing an increasingly complacent form of hardball with one another, the only winners will be their competition.
@zelannii Right now, HTML5 does need multiple formats, for video. because if you want your video to play in the small number of players who have incredibly minor support for HTML5, then you need to encode in both h.264 and OGG.
"The remainder of flash content is all about visual presentation"
OF COURSE! You hit the nail on the head. If websites were not about visual presentation, then things like CSS would have never been needed.
The fact is, the web is only going to become more "visual presentation". The whole internet thing is still really young in the scheme of things. Every company wants to out-do every other company. These companies pay millions for "visual presentation"
I for one, don't give a crap if Flash, Silverlight, HTML5, or whatever ends up being the tool for the best visual presentation there is. TODAY, the answer is not HTML5. Maybe in 2-5 years. Today, if you want to push visual presentation, you use Flash.
Again, http://www.thefwa.com Check it out. There are so many cool things you can do. I only find it annoying that I can't access sites like this on my iPhone. But it is only a phone. I expect by the end of this year that other smart phones will be able to. When you move to the iPad, I then find it stupid that I can't access these sites.
But again, the whole HTML5 thing kills me when people use it as an argument. I would feel really different if all the browsers fully supported the standard. But talking about something that is neither here nor there versus an existing technology...
@zelannii, you can develop Flash without giving a dime to Adobe, the complete Flex SDK is not just free, but open source at that. And Flash dwarfed Java support in browsers years ago.
it will newer be cos big money playing there it
they just simply wont do it cos of another phones will go to bin straight away ..
big money making role here !
one touch was from me... I wanna have flash on iPhone
when will some company or somebody start to sue Apple for anti-competitive behaviour?
Microsoft dod not get in line until they lost major court cases and it looks as if Apple need the same treatment.
This is no game between Apple and Adobe, Apple are behaving in an anti-competitive behaviour to stifle innovation so that they can push their own agenda by forcing you through their channels. Exactly the same as what Microsoft was doing in the browser & anti-virus battles.
@Atkins of course it's anti-competitive. See my comment below.
Apple doesn't play with others.
So why isn't Android getting it?
@Elad Android will have it starting with the Nexus One. Looks like I'll be getting a Pre when my contract is up. I love my MBP, and soon to be iMac, but cannot stand the way Steve Jobs is so restrictive with Apple when the majority obviously wants flash!
Adobe is so lazy, I mean they went and wrote flash for Symbian, RIM, Android, WebOS, Windows Mobile..those god damn lazy fucks!!!!
@Cin Most of the people I know with iPhones now are average, non-techy, people who don't even surf on the phone. The only thing I would want flash for is Hulu. But with all the bugs and security holes in Flash there is no way it's going on my phone.
Apple will release a new iPhone soon, people will clamor for it as usual. Lack of Flash wont hurt sales at all.
As a web developer, I can tell you now that HTML5 is NOT the answer.
The problem with it, is that they couldn't agree on a codec for the video. Apple/Safari support H.264, Firefox & Opera support OGG, Chrome hasn't decided but agrees the license costs for H.264 is too expensive (no it's not free as most people seem to think) and IE doesn't support the tags at all.
Safari currently has 3.76% of the browser share market - a major company like Hulu are not going to rewrite their site for such a small percentage of the browser market.
This is why everyone uses flash - all browsers support it and Hulu (or the site in question) doesn't need to worry about the format of the video, as they know it'll just work.
Granted, things like HTML5 will eventually replace the need for flash, this isn't going to happen for a long time yet.
@markw Not to mention that there is no DRM in HTML that can protect sites like Hulu and Netflix from having the video stolen right out of it.
cant wait for flash on my n1
I think any developer has the right to use the WebKit browser in their iPhone-apps, right? A lot of iPhone apps do it. So why doesn't Adobe release a Flash stand-alone app with a WebKit browser and an extra layer with Flash or something. They still haven't showed us how well their Flash for iPhone works yet.
i was one among
me too
Apple will never allow Flash any device that can only get apps from the App Store. Why? It has nothing to do with performance or stability.
It is because Flash would compete with the App Store.
If I was an app developer would I rather write an app for iPhone or *for any device which can play flash*.
Die, flash, die!!!!
I pray for your death!
@Kelmon
You assume the implementation of Flash on handsets is the same as that on desktops, it's not. It's actually more like running it with FlashBlock. If you watch the Palm demo of Flash on WebOS, you'll see they still have the little plugin blocks. But when they double-tap on them, the flash object activates, just like Flashblock works. So you don't get any flash you don't want/need.
And from what I've seen, it runs quite well. Bear in mind that the next version of Flash has supposedly been in development for several years in an effort to improve efficiency and speed.
I fail to see how the iphone not having flash is a bad thing.
@WindFreak For me that is a selling point. I will buy an iPad because I do not need to install a Flash blocker plugin.
Apple sucks... they are really trying to not sell their products.
Hey Adobe why don't you work on releasing flash for the other platforms and stop worrying about Apple. You are a little bit behind schedule but yet you keep postponing.
That's less than 10% of iPhone OS users.
How many hits YouTube got? How many hits games in App Store got?
7mln looks like a large number, but in grand perspective, it isn't.
@kl add into that number the number of web developers that use Safari on a Macintosh to test sites that have their Safari browsers develop user agent set to mobile Safari for testing, and that skews Adobe's whole statistic. How many of those are truly unique IP requests, and are they checking at the MAC address level. I doubt it... i am willing to bet that they just have a recorder that counts the number of time that the flash does not work on your device page, and figure that their browser redirect script is correct in sending the right browser to that specific page.
I don't understand what the problem is:
1. Make the stupid plugin
2. Submit it to the app store
3. ???
4. Profit!!
amirite?
@acme64
nournotrite
How would you expect the App store would allow that through??
@acme64 With Adobe's current quality control in the development pit it is highly doubtful that even if they made a Flash player for the iPhone that it would pass Apples stringent quality control standards and be accepted into the app store.
@AlaskanHandyman
so you guys are saying adobe is scared to fail? and are thus mad at apple for something? that makes no sense
@airmikee
So if you have an ipod that doesnt connect to the internet, how do you install downloaded and apps music on it? I guess you dont know how almost every mp3 player did it before they had cell or wifi radios in them.
LOL...your comment is completely irrelevant.
PS. I love it anytime someone says no way, or impossible. Especially when a 4th grader could prove both of those wrong!
All the amazing stuff hackers can do...
and they can't get Flash up and running on the iPhone?
Am I missing something here?
@paulus Flash is proprietary Adobe owns it and Adobe does not like the developer model that Apple has created for the iPhone and its other mobile devices. They choose not to develop a flash plugin for the iPhone because they think that they can make Apple capitulate and give in and open up the iPhone to poor coding standards. That just is not going to happen. Apple has such tight control over their development process to ensure that every approved application works well and efficiently on their mobile devices, Flash player does not even run efficiently in OS X but it does in Windows on the same hardware, that is the example of poor coding that Apple does not want to cripple its mobile devices, or worst yet physically damage them.
@AlaskanHandyman,
you're so brainwashed...
Apple wants no part of Flash because it would allow developers to make apps accessible from the browser without Apple getting a slice via its App Store monopoly. Apple allows no circumvention of its money train, period.
HTML5 isn't gonna answer the Flash problem, either. Hulu and others will never allow you to right-click a video to download it, but HTML5 demands this feature, with zero protection of IP. Flash blocks the capture of protected media. Apple gives two craps about making online media acquisition more secure, since they'd prefer you use their iTunes system anyway. The folks at Apple have an agenda, and it'll definitely cost consumers more in the end if they get their way.
@christexaport HTML5 IS NOT SCHED TO BE RELEASED TILL 2020.
@christexaport 'The folks at Apple have an agenda, and it'll definitely cost consumers more in the end if they get their way."
Yeah, Apple getting "their way," by using open-standards like WebKit and HTML5.
Why are you not upset about Adobe getting "their way" with a closed, proprietary plug-in like Flash, owned and licensed by one company? All that worry you type about the future with Apple at the helm is wrongly aimed - it's already happening right now with Adobe. Doesn't that bother you too?
@christexaport
Question: if an application is released as a free App on the App Store, how does Apple get "a slice"? This sounds very much like galloping paranoia to me that hasn't been thought through fully.
@Kelmon
"Question: if an application is released as a free App on the App Store, how does Apple get "a slice"? This sounds very much like galloping paranoia to me that hasn't been thought through fully."
Free for the consumer != free for the developer. It costs a developer $99/year to have their app in the App Store. Even if it's a free/open source app.
Might want to do some research before accusing others of paranoia.
@christexaport
I understand Apple doesn't want any part of Flash. But Apple doesn't want half the stuff that hackers can do.
Why can't someone (clearly not me) find a workaround? Or is there a workaround and I don't know about it?
C'mon Apple! Flash is used so widely these days! I understand how they want to wait for HTML 5. But what about right here right now! Can't they even release a half-baked version until HTML 5 comes out.
Consumers will want something that you know shows all web pages!
@Interwebs HTML5 IS NOT SCHED TO BE RELEASED TILL 2020.
@Toshiba You can stop anytime.
It's "out" now. Has been for over a year.
I think what you meant to report with all of your redundant copy-paste posts is that the HTML5 standard isn't scheduled to be FINISHED and FINALIZED until then, but actual adoption and implementation is happening much faster, in fact right now with browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera, and will likely get even closer to being a common standard across the board within the year. YouTube and Vimeo already have the option to use it.
http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/HTML_5_Won_t_Be_Ready_Until_2022DOT_Yes__2022DOT
@hey buddy
Just because it's out and a few websites are starting to try it does not mean that it is, or will, replace Flash. Who knows, by time HTML5 picks up full on popularity there may be a new version of Flash that builds off the existing product - causing companies to avoid HTML5 out of ease of the little change. Besides, Flash will still be neede for Flash based games; HTML 5 isn't made them.
Also, even if HTML5 was the standard, and if it was able to run on any browser, why would that mean that Flash wouldn't still be around? There are many websites that utilize Flash for ad rotation, online advertisment scans (like the weekly ads in the Newspaper) and splash screens. Companies with existing Flash development software may just stick with it - even if things change. Look at how many websites still use Javascrip naviagation.
Lastly, let's say that HTML5 becomes the format of Hulu and streaming music websites, I can only assume that Apple would disable the use of HTML5 on all the iProducts. If it diggs into revenue you best kill it fast.
@greezyg, would you please care to explain what security holes? That meme is circulating around for months now, and usually people who have no idea what Flash is are the ones spreading it.
@Cin
Ah, well, I did not know that Flash 10.1 will not run automatically unless the user requests it. However, I have no faith that it will actually be any good when it is released, and that's basically because Adobe have never been able to make Flash work properly under OS X. Adobe's focus has not been the Mac platform for many years and I highly doubt that things will have changed in 10.1. It may well run better but that's only because it seems to be spreading the load where a more efficient code could have delivered the same results without additional resources. You only have to look at the processor usage under OS X compared to Windows for the same Flash movie to see how much can be achieved with optimisation, of which bugger all seems to have reached the Mac.
Colour me skeptical.
@Kelmon
Their Linux support has also been historically abysmal as well. Yet Android and WebOS, both of which run on Linux, are getting full Flash support which, at least from the videos that have been released, seems to run fine. I'll know more firsthand sometime this month when it's released though.
Sounds about right. I wrote both Apple, Apple Support Groups, Adobe and the Adobe Blog about wanting Flash on the iPad. Gimme my Hulu and Kongregate!
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