Why Apple’s Move to Block Flash is a Great Leap Forward?

By now you probably have heard about this little tussle between Apple and Adobe. The fight became “public” when Apple CEO Steve Jobs posted an open letter of sorts about his Thoughts on Flash where he criticized one of Adobe’s flagship products – Flash. Our good friend Steve said some unfriendly things against Flash, it being not secure enough, not touch-friendly enough, not technology forward enough and most of all, not open enough. So, enough is enough. Flash can’t get anywhere near Apple’s mobile devices. Whew!

Many people might not agree with Apple’s position. After all, more than 90% of all websites on the Internet have some Flash in them. Some even run almost entirely on Flash like HBO.com that if you try to visit the site and your computer doesn’t support Flash, you’ll see an almost blank page except for a line that says: You need to install Flash. Surely, if that much websites use Flash, it couldn’t be that bad, right?

Wrong! At least in Apple’s point of view. For Apple, Flash has no place in today’s mobile computing devices so they blocked Flash on iPhone, iPod and iPad. That means, if you recently bought an iPad, you now have in your hand ‘the best way to see the web, email and photos’, except that you can’t play Farmville, you won’t enjoy HBO.com and you will see some missing elements on CNN.com, Disney.com and millions of other websites running Flash. Huh?


But don’t be sad, it’s not that bad. According to Apple, an estimated 40% of the web’s video can still be viewed on its mobile devices, not to mention the best YouTube viewing experience, so no worries, iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video. As for games, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free. For everything else, Apple is pushing web developers to adapt HTML5 – a young yet promising new protocol for developing dynamic websites. Simply put, HTML5 is the anti-Flash.

Adobe hits back

Of course, Flash cannot take things sitting down. In response, it recently launched a PR blitz basically positioning itself as pro-Choice. Their main argument is that web developers must be free to choose whatever technology they want to use, may it be Flash or HTML5 or whatever, and not be “forced” into using a certain protocol just to get access to Apple’s mobile user base. I thought the ad was quite clever but I’m not sure if it’s achieving its objective.

But, Apple is clever-er! They responded with an equally witty ad (though unofficial) that essentially says, “We love you too Adobe, a little, but you’re still blocked.” That marked the beginning of what I think will be a full-blown epic battle between two competing tech giants. Get your popcorn and couch ready as the fun is just getting started.

Apple’s brilliant strategy

The recent move to block Flash in its mobile devices, albeit risky as some experts argue because of Flash’s dominance on the web, was a brilliant strategy and might I say, a great leap forward. Here’s my take:

By strategically blocking Flash on their mobile devices (iPhone, iPod and iPad) and yet wisely keeping it on their desktops (Mac), Apple effectively forces developers to adapt HTML5, warts and all, for mobile web applications. Consider this: there are 4 billion mobile devices in the planet today and Apple holds a big chunk of that market. Surely, developers would want to get access to that. Going by Apple’s rules, the only way to do it is to adapt HTML5. In the meantime, Apple can still benefit from all the Flash goodness on the desktop market, as it’s not blocked there. Clever.

As developers ease up on HTML5, Apple will continue to gain tremendous market share. At the same time, the global market as a whole will continue to shift to mobile. From desktops, everybody is now moving to laptops. It will not be long before the next great migration from laptop to iPhone and iPad – or any device resembling it – happens. By that time, Apple would have been the most dominant player in the mobile computing space. By that time, Apple would have built an all-encompassing ecosystem where the device, the operating system and applications are all under its control. By that time, we will wake up to a brave new world where Emperor Apple rules.

Clever!
(Photo credits: woot.com)