Comments on: Opinion: Flash is the Real iPhone Killer

By: Flash developer since '98

Flash developer since '98 — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 12:29:50 +0000

HTML5 is a fat pig. If you write the same app with Flash/ActionScript and HTML5 the latter will run slower. You’ll also struggle with compatibility problems across different browsers.

With Flash you have professional grade tools that help you create something with a minimum of fuss, not just a text editor. Flash apps run on anything with Flash, and will look and behave as intended for decades (all my old stuff still works). With HTML5 apps may stop working with the next browser version or whenever the HTML5 spec changes.

I don’t care if native iPhone apps run faster than a scalded cat. Compared to working with Flash, development with Xcode and Objective-C is a slow process, and there’s still no guarantee your app will even be approved. It just doesn’t seem fair what they are asking of the developers. Until they lighten up on some of their policies I won’t concider the iPhone.

By: Frank de Groot

Frank de Groot — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 10:10:40 +0000

Flash is the most advanced cross-platform development tool out there, the apps you can make with it are slick, fast and stable, and Apple is making a big mistake blocking Flash for commercial reasons only. Your blog post is FUD.

By: WaltFrench

WaltFrench — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 16:25:19 +0000

Amen. Last nite at SF’s modern art museum, I heard about an interesting architect so went to his web site. All I could see was an “install Flash” message.
I’d like to be able to see sites that now use Flash heavily, and there are two possible ways that’ll happen:

A. Adobe gets their butt in gear and produces decent browser plugins or apps to run Flash. Lots of work to do on Windows mobile, Palm, Nokia, BlackBerry, etc., none of which have Flash and none of which is run by Steve Jobs. When Adobe shows success on enough devices that Apple sees a competitive disadvantage, they will capitulate and find a way to make it happen.

B. Webmasters wise up that putting up site inaccessible to a few hundred million mobile users is suicidal. They detect mobiles and offer an alternative. Eventually, this morphs into detecting IE versions less than 9.0, and using Flash just for them.

I’ll hazard the guess that Plan A is at least two years out. Adobe has all the hardware resources they need on modern Android phones, and yet they only have a feature-incomplete “beta” running on one device. (Once upon a time, “Beta” meant a feature-complete program that was ready for wider testing, even if there were still bugs. Now, Adobe means it as “some things kinda work.”) Android has been out two years; Windows Mobile for longer than that; BlackBerry’s current incarnation for years… and no official Flash to be seen anywhere.

I don’t really think Adobe engineers are incompetent. They’re just trying to shoehorn a desktop-type program into gizmos with roughly 10% of the CPU, Graphics, memory and power of the desktops that Flash was designed for. Incompetent management, maybe, for saying repeatedly that they were going to have it done, year after year.

By: convert video to iphone

convert video to iphone — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 08:48:02 +0000

Yes, a quite good variant

By: Daniel Freeman

Daniel Freeman — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:25:42 +0000

There's a lot of confusion here. Liam Cassidy doesn't seem to know the difference between a website and an application. And neither do most of the biased, yet ill-informed comments. Liam says "I’ve rarely seen a Flash site that I enjoyed." That opinion is irrelevant. Has Liam used Adobe AIR? Has he browsed Adobe's AIR marketplace?, and tried any of the applications? We are talking about the ability of Flash CS5 to convert AIR applications to the iPhone aren't we? (The article was written prior to Clause 3.3.1). Why does Liam go off on a tangent and start bitching about Flash websites? Lets compare like with like.

Flash is a tool. It can be used badly by a novice graphic designer who makes a bloated eye-candy style over substance experience. But it can also be used well by an experienced ActionScript 3 developer. Which of these people do you think is more likely to make an application?

By: Jae

Jae — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 14:39:14 +0000

I'm sorry but you have absolutely no idea what Flash can do now, do you?

By: Jae

Jae — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 14:35:15 +0000

The author obviously biased against Flash.
I think Flash has brought to the multimedia world whatever it has promised, and much more. It allows for boundless creative web expression that conventional HTML pages cannot achieve. Above that, Flash also has many other uses other than using it as a web applet.

http://www.thefwa.com

By: Interfaces riches > Pourquoi l’iPad n’a pas besoin de Flash

Interfaces riches > Pourquoi l’iPad n’a pas besoin de Flash — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:36:45 +0000

[...] Donc au final l’iPhone se passant très bien de Flash, il n’y a pas de raison apparente pour que cela soit différent sur l’iPad. Ceci venant en plus s’ajouter à des histoires de DRM et de modèle économique qui font que Flash est perçu comme un danger pour l’iPhone (cf. Flash is the Real iPhone Killer). [...]

By: That Guy

That Guy — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:47:38 +0000

How would that save you time? You think people would buy a device specifically for adobe products? I Think not.

You could always learn other languages that are friendly to all devices. The only thing flash is good for is Games and Video Streaming, I see no practical reasons other than that.

By: Sharedtut

Sharedtut — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:51:19 +0000

I wonder if Adobe is working on a device of their own, that would totally save us developers a lot of time.