Posts Tagged ‘iPhone’

Why We Don’t See Flash On The iPhone

October 23rd, 2009

flash-iphoneSince the iPhone first came out there were many conversations around the web about why Apple refuse to support the Flash player.
Most keep explaining Steve Jobs need for perfection and the fact that the Flash player can eat the already fragile iPhone battery life quite fast.
But while thinking about it today I thought that the real reason for Apple refusal is completely different.
The day Apple will introduce a Flash player on the iPhone they will also introduce something else – Flash games and applications. Right not in order to develop and run an application on the iPhone, developers need to learn and write code in Objective C. These applications are not cross platform, meaning that an application developed for the iPhone can’t be run on an Android or Nokia phone.
By not providing a cross platform option and as the main platform for application developers, Apple succeeded in creating a huge community of developers dedicated to the iPhone platform. Many will say that the number of applications on the Apple App Store is the number one advantage Apple has on Andorid and the Palm Pre.
But if suddenly developers will be able to develop their app just once using Flash and then run the same app (or with small modifications) on other platforms as well, Apple will lose its grip on the App Store. Also don’t forget that there are probably many more developers and designers who know Flash development than ones who know specific iPhone development.

So is this the main reason Apple is blocking Flash from the iPhone? Does Steve wait for the very last minute where competition with other phones will dictate the introduction of Flash on the iPhone? What do you think?

* Quick note: I’m sure some people will say that Apple can install a Flash player on the iPhone but block it from the iPhone SDK. But note two things:
1. History shows that developers and hackers will always find a way to go behind Apple and find a way to use the Flash player. And if too many hacked iPhones will be able to run Flash applications, it will put more pressure on Apple to allow it also in the official applications.
2. The main use of the Flash player will be embedded in the Safari browser. The iPhone SDK allows you to embed and use Safari inside your apps, basically allowing developers to gain access to Flash.

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Posted in Apple, Business, Development, iPhone

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Apple Marketing Machine Beats Google

November 8th, 2008

I’ve been saying for a long time that Apple is a marketing firm first and technology company second.
Yes, Apple does release amazing technology products like the iPhone, but what gives them their dominant role in the market is first of all their marketing.

It seems that even the big Google can’t compete with Apple.
I still remember the first days when the iPhone just came out. Every single day we saw all the blogs and news papers cover every single feature, every new application or hack that came out. Even now, we still see quite a large coverage of iPhone rumors and opinions on future releases.

It’s been a few weeks since Android came out and I can’t really remember reading anything about it. Actually, if you’ll check Google trends you will see that even now when Android is completely new and exciting it doesn’t even scratch the iPhone dominance of the news.

You can say that this is because the iPhone is just a better product. Maybe… but even so I would still expect to see Android in the news, even if with bad news and reviews.

You can say a lot of bad things about the Microsoft-Seinfeld campaign, but in the end we need to appreciate the fact that for a few weeks, it put Microsoft in the news again and again, even without a new shining product like Android.

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