You may have noticed some news on the internet about Flash being compatible with iOS devices as of recently. Supposedly, Adobe has said a new Flash Server will actually convert content into HTML5-compatible streams, playable on devices like the iPad and iPhone that traditionally lack support for native flash. Some are trying to technically interpret this to mean Flash content is now compatible with iOS. Finally, you really can browse the full web like you do on your desktop!
Unfortunately, that’s not how this works.
While it is true that Adobe’s recently announced Flash Media Server supports converting content into an iPhone and iPad compatible format, I think a lot of people have misunderstood what this actually means.
You may recall back in April of last year that Apple’s Steve Jobs wrote the now infamous “Thoughts on Flash“. In the letter, Mr. Jobs had essentially said that Apple is not interested in adopting Adobe’s Flash technology for their mobile devices. Ever.
Meanwhile, Adobe’s announcement really has very little to do with Flash in the strictest sense. We’re actually only talking about streaming video.
In the world of web hosting, a special streaming server is often recommended to deliver content into your viewer’s browser. Adobe offers their own server software, called Flash Media Server, that a web developer can choose to host and stream their content with. It usually offers advantages over hosting video files over HTTP, especially when dealing with a lot of content.
The problem with Flash Media Server has been that iPhones and iPads can’t view the content on account of it requiring a Flash player. That is, until now. Version 4.5 of the server software will detect a flash-less device and convert the stream into one compatible with the iOS browser.
Here’s the thing about this — it only applies to video streams hosted with this kind of server software. Smaller websites that host their own video likely already use something like JWPlayer, which has built-in support for HTML5 streaming over HTTP. Larger websites with a lot of content probably have HTML5 streams for the iconic iOS devices as well. Adobe’s announcement is great for web hosts because it means they can simplify their server costs and no longer need to support both Flash and HTML5 streams.
But this will not, and I can’t stress the word not enough, bring Flash to iOS. In fact, I doubt any of this actually makes any difference whatsoever to the end user. Remember, Flash is a lot more than just video streaming. Flash is animation, interactive content and games, banners, and heck, even entire web-based applications. Video is just one part of how it is used, and chances are your favorite video site already has HTML5 compatibility or isn’t using Flash Media Server anyway.
To those trying to say Apple has finally won by forcing Adobe to recognize how important it is to support their devices, that seems to be a really ironic way of looking at it. You see, Adobe as a company wants Flash to be compatible with as many devices as possible, with or without Apple’s consent. Apple denied them, but they still want in. Its not an ego thing, that’s business as usual. If anything, this would appear to be another example of Adobe wiggling its way into an ecosystem that Apple has tried to shut them out of.
You may recall that Adobe started offering a way to develop applications in Flash CS5 and export them as native iOS apps. Apple decided to ban them from the App store at first, allowing only apps written using their own SDK and tools, but then changed their mind eventually. Meanwhile, Adobe’s Flash is far more ubiquitous to HTML5, so its hard to say one is “losing” or “winning” in any scenario here.
If anything, when politics like this cloud the development world, the only people that lose are consumers.
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