7 million iPhone and iPod touch users tried to download Flash, and left sad
Despite the widespread disdain for Adobe Flash, it remains a ubiquitous platform delivering streaming media to millions of browser windows -- except for mobile Safari. Adobe claims that its site received more than 7 million download requests for Flash in the month of December, originating from iPhone and iPod touch users, which the company is using as evidence that users of those products want Flash on their devices. A shocking figure, if true. And if traffic from these devices is so high now, demand will only be exacerbated by the arrival of the iPad, once thousands of angry users discover they can't watch funny cat videos anywhere but YouTube.
It's important to note, however, this traffic is originating from Adobe's Flash download page, where visitors are likely arriving after having clicked on a link which told them that their browser did not have Flash installed and where to download the plugin. So the question remains as to whether demand lured them to the page, or a simple call-to-action link. You decide.
I'm impressed that Adobe went to the effort of logging download requests, given their supposed "laziness."
