There’s no shortage of chatter on the ‘net these days about Apple’s iPhone and its lack of support for Adobe Flash. And with today’s announcement from Apple about the release of an SDK so that developers can begin to create their own applications for the iPhone, the lack of any mention of Flash is still causing many to scratch their heads. I don’t claim to be particularly technical, nor do I have any “inside” information from either Adobe or Apple in this regard. But I do have an opinion that I think is worth taking a closer look at.
I should start off by clearly stating that as a company, I love both Adobe and Apple. I totally “get” both companies and I used to work at Adobe. And I’m friendly with folks from both companies. I use (and rely) on their products every day. So I intend no bias towards any of these companies. I’m not taking sides or stating who is right or wrong, simply because I don’t think it has anything to do with that at all. It has to do with vision and what each company values and sees as its future.
The title of this article pretty much sums up where I think the “battle” lies.
Apple is a firm believer in the web browser. After all, they have their own, called Safari, which is pretty darn good (I am using it right this moment, actually). Apple developed a “mobile” version of Safari which runs on the iPhone. It’s wonderful because it offers the same experience that users expect on their desktop now. In fact, Apple’s stance has always been “you don’t NEED to develop anything for iPhone — just use Web 2.0 standards in your normal web applications and it will run on iPhone just as it runs on a desktop”. The idea is noble, although for a variety of reasons, I don’t buy it. I’ll explain shortly.
Adobe is a firm believer in content. After all, Adobe doesn’t own a “browser”, but they do own the industry standard design tools, and a rather capable developer framework. Adobe obviously wants a developer to be able to create best-in-class content that works and looks great — EVERYWHERE. And that’s the key point here. Adobe believes that content exists outside the browser experience. That’s the premise of Rich Internet Applications (what Adobe refers to as RIA’s). The point is, your content may live on the ‘net, but you should be able to access that content from anywhere, even outside a web browser. We’re kind of trained to think that we need to “go to the web” because that’s just the way it’s always been. And mainly because there was no other good way to access the content consistently. In reality, content should come to us — wherever we are. That’s what AIR is all about — it’s an environment that allows you to run RIA’s which aren’t in your browser (I love how AIR reads as RIA in reverse). They’re on your desktop, or elsewhere.
Here’s an analogy I’ve come up with that I think describes the difference. Say you want to travel from one place to another. We can climb into our car and drive to our destination. The car is a vehicle that transports us. It’s a machine that we’re familiar with. We use it because it allows us to get to our destination. Compared to the ‘net, think of the destination as your website and the car as your web browser. The car takes you to your website. Without the car, you can’t get there. But say we’re living in the future and we have the ability to teleport, or beam ourselves to any destination. If we wanted to visit a destination, we don’t need a vehicle — we just press a button and we are instantly transported there. So the experience is very different — the car isn’t necessary. It’s just you and the content.
With Adobe’s recent announcement about Flex 3 and AIR and with the positioning of Flash Lite 3, I think Adobe has made it clear that they see the future of “web apps” as having nothing at all to do with a browser at all. And if that’s the way Adobe and Flash are heading, then Apple’s vision of a browser based user experience puts both companies on a conceptual point of view that is moving in two very different directions.
From a pure mobile development standpoint, I also think that Apple’s idea of just extending the desktop experience to the mobile platform is somewhat missing the point of just what mobile actually is. More often than not, the mobile experience isn’t the same as the desktop experience. When I’m on the go, I may require certain information, or require certain services. Cameron Moll actually has some fantastic ideas about this. A good mobile application will not simply be a repurposed desktop app, but rather one that has been designed and developed specifically for the mobile experience itself.
So will Flash ever run on the iPhone? Only time will tell. But if what they say is true (content being king and all), we as users will certainly have lots to look forward too.
Brian started at the beginning and spoke about laying the groundwork for websites using familiar software applications, like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Fireworks. Brian then spent some time discussing just what exactly CSS and how it works. What was really great about this part was how easy it was to understand. Brian made constant comparisons to traditional print design terms (for example, how CSS ID tags compare to Layers in Illustrator or InDesign), making the session easy to follow, and seeming less technical.During lunch break, tens of attendees lined up to speak personally with Brian, asking questions on specific items from the class, and asking for advice on how to implement their own personal projects. In fact, Brian had little time to grab lunch for himself, as the afternoon sessions got underway quickly. 
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