Thoughts on Flash

In April 2010, Steve Jobs published an open letter explaining why Apple would not support Adobe Flash on the iPhone, iPod and iPad. Adobe had framed the decision as Apple protecting its App Store. Jobs argued it was about technology, and set out six reasons.

1. Openness. Flash was wholly controlled by Adobe, while Apple backed open web standards such as HTML5, CSS and JavaScript, and had open-sourced WebKit.
2. The "full web". Most web video was also available in H.264, which Apple devices already played, so users were missing very little.
3. Reliability, security and performance. Flash had a poor security record, was a leading cause of Mac crashes, and had never been shown running well on a phone.
4. Battery life. Hardware H.264 decoding roughly doubled video playback time compared with the software decoding most Flash video needed.
5. Touch. Flash sites were built for a mouse, with features such as rollovers, and would need rewriting for touch screens anyway.
6. Third-party layers. The most important reason: a cross-platform tool between Apple and its developers would hold them to the lowest common denominator and delay access to new platform features.

“New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too).” — Steve Jobs, Thoughts on Flash

The letter is worth reading in full. It is a clear example of a platform owner explaining a technical decision in plain language.

Read the full letter (Internet Archive)