Steve Jobs, Apple Ltd CEO, has released a public letter discussing the motivations behind shunning Adobe Flash from all Apple devices. It is an interesting read, especially if you’re an iPod, iPhone or iPad owner. Read the article here: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/
Will Apple crush Flash?
The Apple iPad is to arrive in Australia late this month, and New Zealand following closely. Many will be excited to play with yet another flash new Apple toy. But for us in the web design and development industry it will be the beginning of an interesting time.
Since the launch of the iPhone/iPod Touch, there has been a noticeable lack of co-operation between Apple and Adobe over plugins to support flash-based content. If you are browsing the internet on your computer, you are probably blissfully unaware of how much of your browsing experience is dependent on this thing called Flash (more about Flash here). Basically if you see some kind of animation or fancy effects on a website, there’s a good chance is built with Flash. Enjoy it, Flash can make the difference between a nice website and a memorable, beautiful website – but Apple refuses to have any Flash support on it’s devices.
When browsing on the iPhone or iPad, instead of slick, animated interfaces, you’ll be greeted with a blue lego block where flash content once was (examples). And there is no end in sight.
What will this mean exactly? Well. If the iPad fails, nothing. However, if the iPad takes off it will damage flash-based websites to the point of  having to close up shop or re-develop their website to include no flash at all. Which could be very expensive. What about design agencies which use flash in almost every project (for example, Resn)? Will we be taking a step back from gorgeous and interactive websites towards flat but very compatible sites? Either way the two big A’s need to pull finger and work together if we are to keep moving forward in this interactive web environment.
Further reading:
Why you wouldn’t use flash in your website
Apple iPad
The iPad Flash Clash