Engadget is reporting that Adobe plans to build Flash into the iPhone with the newly released SDK, even though Steve Jobs declared less than two weeks ago that the technology wasn’t ready for the device.
So what about all that fuss Jobs made about needing another version of Flash that was more capable than the mobile version but less power hungry than the desktop one? Well, I guess we’re going to have to see just what Adobe comes up with. Chief Executive Shantanu Narayen is quoted as saying “We have evaluated [the software developer tools] and we think we can develop an iPhone Flash player ourselves.”
Now it’s Microsoft’s turn to declare plans for putting Silverlight on the iPhone with the SDK, something Scott Guthrie, VP of Microsoft’s Developer Platform, has suggested the company might do.
Hi Mark, I think it is great that adobe is developing a flash alternative for the iPhone, but the entire industry is really overlooking the impact of silverlight. You can do everything you can do in flash, in managed objected oriented and intellesensed code. You can take the same software, tweak a few things, and deploy it to wpf (baked into vista). Most people overlook the .net framework and silverlight because it comes from MSFT and thus costs $$ (470 for a license of windows server 2008) and would rather pay some guy more to roll out the same stuff for more money because at all costs they can’t throw money redmond’s way. It is ok, while people are trying to save 30-50 a month off their hosting i will be doing rapid application development in .net . Besides, much like IBM, no one is fired for opting to go with the microsoft solution.
I wont be back to this post to view those that reply, so save your typing. I know I am right
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Finally, Adobe steps up to the plate and makes a stand for itself. Steve Jobs was completely out of line with his comments. Steve needs to realize he cannot shut out the flash community from the iPhone by simply huffing and puffing inaccurate statements.
And Steve, you’ll be seeing my video apps on your iPhone by the end of this year.
Paul Yanez
I read the article and was amazed that Scott Guthrie’s brother Steve was working with him at MS! Alas, I think you have a typo.
http://www.scottgu.com/
Won’t a Flash client on the iPhone be in violation of the TOS for the SDK?
It’s SCOTT Guthrie, not STEVE Guthrie
*sigh*
The problem here is that these companies just have too much history to know what exactly is going on in this war of words.
Apple and Adobe are kind of like two lovers who keep breaking up and then getting back together again. Their friends might think they know what’s going on but in reality there’s too much subtext for anyone on the outside to really grasp the situation.
I mean, it’s widely reported that Adobe Chairman Warnock is still upset over Apple supporting TrueType for god’s sakes. Who would even guess that would still be an issue?
So this is all just a dance right now. Each side is trying to illicit a response from the other with these public statements and I don’t think any of us can fully grasp what’s going on or where the dance will end. I suspect the iPhone will get Flash one way or the other but I think Apple’s involvement in it is still very much up in the air (despite what Jobs said)
Anyone seen a crackberry recently? Just kidding, but I agree with the first post, silverlight might really mix up the market and microsoft obviously wants this to work on all plattforms. Even if MS does not port it to the iPhone, we still have Moonlight….
Well it sure will be interesting if Adobe develop a player but Apple dont let them put it on the device, which seems quite likely to me.
In response to Scott’s mention of,
“You can do everything you can do in flash, in managed objected oriented and intellesensed code.”
First… Speaking in the nicest possible voice… get off of microsoft’s **** for a minute.
Second… Eclipse + FDT3, or Flex Builder 3 (built on Eclipse) provides the IDE you think doesn’t exist for Flash. Managed, object (NOT “objected”) oriented code, with intellisense features are available.
Try it man… you just might like it.
Tom, just ignore Scotts Post, its obviously a paied by Microsoft blogger that is going over any post and typing this dribble.
Silverlight is nice by the sounds of it, but why use Redmond code when you can do just as good a job in Flash which is 90% open source based.
Silverlight will be an important technology and used well by those with a .net tendency, but it will never get close to flash.
Especially in the cross development with graphic designers. Thermo etc.
James
This is really good news for the Flash Developers out there – I bet the player will be somewhat different in order to address the issues it would have on the iPhone (touch screen vs drag) – so I’d love to see how the existing Flash app will work with it.
Jobs has a point on the technical merits: Flash is a mess and an incredible CPU hog, which is especially bad on a mobile device. The laptop I’m using right now has its CPU pegged. Why? Because I have a few web pages open and they all have awful Flash ads on them. Flash uses CPU even when movies aren’t doing anything.
It’s also a poor toybox of a development platform, and the Flash authoring app is just garbage. There’s a reason for the nickname Hackromedia.
Well regarding the tech, lets look at the reason why the iphone UI is so smooth. There is a 3D co-processor (by PowerVR) built into the main chip in the iphone, and this is used to accelerate the user interface. Combined with nice design and a great touchscreen, and you get a lovely experience. If Microsoft or Adobe can tap into that power, then their stuff could work reasonably well on the iphone, but I dont think this will be the easiest thing in the world to achieve.
It also seems clear that Apple want web developers to use SVG, css transforms and transitions when designing rich web stuff for the iphone. These things will be in iphone 2.0 firmware, and are in the Safari 3.1 desktop browser that just came out. But as other browsers dont support them, I dont see these replacing flash anytime soon, rather this is the tech Apple would rather people use for developing iphone-specific websites/apps.
That’s a great news! I don’t want to learn apples sdk stuff to build a semi-rich web app…
It is all a matter of money. If Apple wanted to embed the Flash Player, they would have to pay royalty fees to Adobe.
Adobe developing a version of FP via SDK means the Flash Player for iPhone will not cost a dime to Apple.
@Scott
You clearly haven’t tried to develop anything in Silverlight or Flex -_-
I think it’s great that Adobe are going to port their flash player, and I did expect that they would. However, all iPhone apps must go throught the iTunes app store and thus I think Apple will come up with some excuse to block the flash player until the real issue (no, performance is not the issue) is sorted out.
Personally, I think that this is a great test of the control v. (developer) community dynamics that will continue to play out as Apple tries to build a mainstream platform; namely, secure developer ecosystem love while maintaining the high performance bar that they have established with the iPhone/iPod touch family of devices.
In that respect, it is somewhat of a three dimensional chess game unfolding, something I blogged about in, ‘The Scorpion, the Frog and the iPhone SDK.’
Check it out if interested:
http://thenetwo...corpion-th.html
Cheers,
Mark
It does play youtube videos, doesn’t it already have a flash player?
“Flash uses CPU even when movies aren’t doing anything.”
Completely untrue. If you’ve seen poorly performing Flash content, then you’ve simply seen the results of crappy developers.
Does anybody know what they will develop for the iopd touch which is what i have (i am actually tuping this fron there right now)?
Flash can be adopted and will work. If Kulabyte can do Live high quality, 2 pass VBR encoding and stream compliant to Flash players, now in VP6; then after NAB they say for H.264 Flash, then the world will change. Mac users and 99% of others (flash adoption) around the world have an easy-no hassle solution for Live high quality, even HD stream viewing over existing networks and programing, the world will change. CPU usage for player has solutions for lower resolution needs and lower power devices, that is a myth!! I hope Adobe capatalizes on this makes it a top strategic effort this year for the company, if so Flash will slaughter Microsoft efforts again to get domination with silverlight (or was it Crackle, Sparckle, Sizzle or the others they tried before silverlight). I also understand that MTV and Viacom has purchased several encoding units this month from Kulabyte and plans to use them for the Nickelodean Kids Choice awards on March 29 and other live events. I saw the Operation My Space on a 42 inch HD LCD in my living room and it was Awesome! I will be waiting to see this March 29 event if MTV uses it for this.
Does anybody remember when steve jobs said that apple would not make a video iPod because it was impractical and people were not ready for it and released one within two years of that announcement?