MacDailyNews Take: Clearly? In whose loaded opinion it is clear, Dan? Here’s something about which Dan probably hasn’t heard: It’s called a “fact.” Only 9.3% of iPhone and iPod touch users have attempted to download Adobe Flash (2/11/2010). “Clearly,” Dan’s slanted setup’s just been blown up.
Rayburn continues, “Steve starts off by saying that, ‘Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven,’ which is correct, but of course Steve says that, ‘in reality it is based on technology issues.’ While Steve spends some time to talk about what an ‘open’ environment really means, and rants about how Flash is not open, he also then says that ‘the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary.’ So on one hand he calls Flash out for not being open, then rightly states that neither is Apple when it comes to their OS, but also then says that in fact, Apple is the one that has an open system, not Adobe. Make up your mind Steve, do you think Apple is open or closed?”
MacDailyNews Take: “Clearly,” the liar here is Dan Rayburn, not Steve Jobs – unless Dan has major reading comprehension issues, which, after reading that paragraph, is quite possibly the case.
Instead of picking apart Dan’s twisted attempt above, here’s exactly what Steve Jobs wrote in his full open letter:
First, there’s “Open”.
Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.
Apple has many proprietary products too. Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards. Apple’s mobile devices all ship with high performance, low power implementations of these open standards. HTML5, the new web standard that has been adopted by Apple, Google and many others, lets web developers create advanced graphics, typography, animations and transitions without relying on third party browser plug-ins (like Flash). HTML5 is completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of which Apple is a member.
Apple even creates open standards for the web. For example, Apple began with a small open source project and created WebKit, a complete open-source HTML5 rendering engine that is the heart of the Safari web browser used in all our products. WebKit has been widely adopted. Google uses it for Android’s browser, Palm uses it, Nokia uses it, and RIM (Blackberry) has announced they will use it too. Almost every smartphone web browser other than Microsoft’s uses WebKit. By making its WebKit technology open, Apple has set the standard for mobile web browsers.
MacDailyNews Take: Get it, yet, Dan?
Full article – Think Before You Click™ – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Oh, and, Dan, see related articles below to see major websites adding HTML5 video to their websites, so that they don’t lose out on the affluent iPhone OS user base; 85+ million strong and rapidly-growing. Arguing for Flash is like arguing for IE-only websites; it’s an argument only a fool would make.
[Attribution: The Business Insider. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Robert S." for the heads up.]
Note to advertisers: (including those who advertise via third-party ad networks and become, in effect, our advertisers): Your Flash-based ads are no longer reaching the most well-heeled customers online: 50+ million iPhone owners. They’re also not hitting brand new iPad users or 35+ million iPod touch users. If you care about reaching people with discretionary income, you might want to consider dumping your flash-based ads and moving to a more open format that people with money and the will to spend it can actually see.
Help kill Adobe’s Flash:
• Ask MarketWatch to offer HTML5 video via the customer support web form here.
• Ask CNBC to offer HTML5 video via the customer support web form here.
• Contact Hulu and ask them to offer HTML5 video via email:
• Ask ESPN360 to offer HTML5 video instead Flash via their feedback page here.
• Join YouTube’s HTML5 beta here.
• On Vimeo, click the “Switch to HTML5 player” link below any video.
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