Why No Flash on iPhone?

Steve Jobs published a letter titled: Thoughts on Flash on Apple.com, explaining why no flash on iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch.

Here are six short-explanations why Apple doesn’t officially support Adobe flash to be included in Apple’s Mobile Device by default:

• Flash is closed system. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript ‚Äì all open standards, rather than using aobe flash.
• Apple Mobile Devices still can access the full web. iPhone Users still accessing “full web” even without flash. Apple can’t play flash game, but instead, over 50,000 games and entertainment apps are available on the iTunes App Store.
• Reliability, security, and performance issue. Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009 and Flash is the number one reason Macs crash.
• Battery life is draining. To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power and flash must be run in software.
• Apple mobile devices are touch-screen, not using mouse. Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. When your mouse is over flash elements, the effect will appear. But while iPhone, iPod, and iPad aren’t using mouse, there won’t be rollover event on the device.
• The most important thing reason is, Adobe wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on our mobile devices. Adobe‚Äôs goal is not to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps, but to help developers write cross platform apps. Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple‚Äôs platforms.

The full-length explanation from Steve Jobs why flash not allowed on iPhone, iPod, and iPad can be seen here: https://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/