Irony is a beautiful thing. For months now the tech world has been abuzz with rumors for the ubiquitous and elusive Apple tablet. If you believed all the rumors, Apple was going to make the ultimate tech device that would single-handedly save newspapers, magazines, comics and even the textbook industry all the while making print products instantly obsolete. Pretty impressive stuff. It’s no wonder that people are disappointed with the iPad. What do you mean it won’t stop world hunger?
So here we are one week after the launch of the ubiquitous yet poorly-named iPad, and what is the topic of conversation? Is it the dying print industry who just got kicked off Steve Jobs’ legs and into the shark infested waters of their own lack of foresight by a clear and distinct lack of an all-in-one media store from Apple? Or is it the gaming industry who is shaking in the shoes because there’s a new kid on the block who is actually offering some innovative competition in the handheld gaming world? Or better yet, maybe it’s how Apple has finally managed to break the price barrier and offer a product that other companies are now having to readjust their own pricing strategies on to keep up with Apple, perhaps the biggest single shift in an industry leader who has prided itself on being the “BMW of the computing world.”
So where is that irony you ask? The irony is that not one of these topics has been the hotbed of conversation around the forthcoming iPad. Instead in all the hype about Apple and their earth-shattering product, it is instead Adobe that is all of a sudden the topic of conversation, and more specifically Flash or the lack of Flash on the iPad.
So why is there all this hubbub all of a sudden about Flash? And why doesn’t the iPad support Flash? And what’s the big deal about Flash anyway? There are two real answers to these questions, the simple and obvious answer and the more subtle and arguably more important answer.
The first reason that the lack of Flash is a big deal can be summed up in one word: Farmville. So what does Farmville have to do with the iPad? Absolutely nothing and that is the problem (or the blessing depending on your point of view). Farmville is a prime example of everything that is wrong with and also right with the internet. Started by a company that is notorious for creating games that rip off other games, dumb them down to the point where even a caveman can play them and then make a fortune off of them through less than savory business tactics, Farmville has become a monolithic entity of a game with more people playing it in one day than people buying one of Apple’s happy iPhones in a quarter. Everyone plays Farmville or if they don’t, they hate it with a passion.
So what’s the big deal? Simply put, Apple has created the must-have device of the next decade while purposely ignoring the #3 use of the internet: stupid Flash games (which follows only slightly after porn and social networking).
And that is why the lack of Flash on the iPad is a big deal. Apple, who is one of the most business-saavy companies out there, has blatantly and purposely ignored one of their biggest potential revenue streams. If there ever was a device made for playing Farmville it was the iPad. Seriously, think about it. And yet Apple chose to kill that revenue stream before it even started. Knowing Apple though, there had to be a damn good reason behind it which brings us to issue two: market dominance.
Before we dive into Apple’s cutthroat business saavy, first let’s take a step back and look at the nerdy geek arguments that have been thrown around a lot lately: namely HTML 5 and open formats. And to really understand the situation, you have to look at the history of video on the internet.
In the beginning there was the internet and it was slow. So people used it for words and a few pictures and it was good. But words are infinitely more boring than pictures and so people kept pushing for more and more and thus high-speed internet was born. And being the greedy sods that they are, people weren’t simply happy with pictures and soon the need for pictures was replaced with the need for movies. And so it was that online video was born.
In the dark ages of internet video there were a number of warring feudal lords who wanted all the money for themselves. Each proclaimed themselves king of internet video and the internet became a battleground between Sirs Windows Media, Quicktime and Real Media, laying waste to all in their paths.
In the meantime, a smaller more focused group of soldiers called Macromedia set out to address another shortcoming of the internet: animation. Before they came along, animation on the internet was crude or bulky and slow.With Flash, this relative nobody hit the goldmine of interactive vector animation that would very quickly take the world by storm.
Initially, both these factions coexisted peacefully. The video lords were happily killing each other off, while Macromedia focused on one thing and it did that one thing extremely well. But as time passed, and Flash became the defacto standard for animation on the Web, an interesting thing happened. Someone somewhere decided to say “screw all those fools killing themselves and online video off, why don’t we just make Flash play videos?” And then there was YouTube and all hell broke loose.
All of a sudden, with it’s 98% market saturation, Flash became a victim of it’s own success. Overnight Flash was crowned the king of online video by an upstart video sharing site singlehandedly killing off Windows Media, Quicktime and Real Media all in one fell swoop. The problem was, Flash was never meant to do video. In fact it sucks at video. But what Flash lacks up for in prowess, it makes up for in uniformity. Simply put, if you want everyone to see your video, you put it in Flash. Period.
And then, the evil Adobe came into the picture and said, “ooh we can control the internet if we buy up Macromedia.” And then the quest for global dominance took over and all of a sudden Flash was trying to be everything for everyone, while not really doing anything well any more.
And then a curious thing happened. A group of revolutionaries calling themselves the “open source movement” decided that they were tired of big money ruling internet technology and they set out to create what should have been created from day one: a standardized and open online video format. And they packaged it all nice and neat inside the happy HTML 5 designation. Only big money hates open source. They absolutely positively hate open source. So the big money got involved and once again there was an online video war, this time between big money’s H.264 and open source’s OGG. Except, in reality no one cared because they were busy watching their online porn in Flash video format while Adobe laughed all the way to the bank
And then there was iPhone, Apple’s runaway success that changed everything. Apple put the internet in your pocket–well at least the part of the internet that didn’t involve video, because the iPhone didn’t support Flash. Sure Apple said it was because Flash slowed down the iPhone too much, but if you look at the history, it goes way deeper than that. Apple, lost the war for video and they lost it badly and they want it back.
Only not putting Flash on the iPhone did nothing for online video. It made Apple the top selling smartphone in the world, but Flash still ruled the net. Why is that? To put it simply, you wouldn’t want to play Farmville on an iPhone, it’s too damn small and slow. But Apple still had a really big ace up it’s sleeve, the iPad.
The iPad is big enough and fast enough that it can do Flash and would be perfect for it. Zynga would certainly be laughing all the way to the bank if Apple made the ideal device for everyone to play their stupid Flash games on. But, surprise, surprise, the iPad won’t do Flash. And now, it’s not about it being too slow or too small, it’s about it being an open format. Yep, Apple has decided that it’s going to champion the underdog, the old reliable open source movement. Or at least that’s what they’d like you to think.
In reality though, Apple hates open formats unless they are Apple’s open formats. Because despite it’s underdog status, Apple is still big money. And Apple is also still bitter about Quicktime losing the big money war for online video. So they may want you to think they are championing open formats, but there is absolutely nothing open about the H.264 format that they want to see adopted. In fact , the real open format OGG, gasp, also does not work on the iPhone, or the iPad or even on their own browser Safari. And among all the browsers that support HTML 5, Safari is the ONLY one that does not support OGG.
Moral of the story: Flash not being on the iPad has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH ENCOURAGING OPEN SOURCE VIDEO SOLUTIONS. So what does it have to do with? Looking at the history, it’s pretty obvious. Apple wants to control online video. And if they’re lucky, they will also corner the market on stupid games while they are at it.
Think about it. Apple creates a hot new device that is perfect for two things: video and stupid games. Sure it will read books and browse the internet, but Steve Jobs already let us know that he thinks people don’t read any more. The lackluster iBook store is a perfect example. It does absolutely nothing that Amazon, Sony and Barnes and Noble haven’t done before. It’s an afterthought aimed at getting a few more buyers and maybe if they’re lucky, killing Kindle in the process.
The real meat of the iPad is the iTunes video store and the app store because the device itself sure as hell isn’t making the staggering profit margins that Apple is used to, not at a $500 price point. And what are the biggest competitors to the iTunes video store? Hulu, Netflix and Flash video, none of which work on the iPad. And what are the biggest competitors to the app store? Stupid Flash games, which also don’t work on the iPad. Is it really any wonder Apple doesn’t want Flash support?
So to summarize, Apple owns the music industry. They own the mobile industry. And now they have their sights set on the video and stupid games markets, and maybe if they’re lucky, the eBook market too. And the only thing standing in their way is the good old bloated overtaxed victim of its own success, Flash. That is why there is no Flash on the iPad. Will their gamble work? I’d wager a guess that it all depends on whether Zynga will make an iPad version of Farmville 
