Flash Is Still Not Alive on the iPhone

InfoWorld updates a long-running story with today’s post: “No Java, Flash for iPhone this Christmas.”

There is still a little time left, but it doesn't look like Apple (AAPL) iPhone users will see Adobe (ADBE) Systems and Sun Microsystems (SUNW) get Flash and Java up and running on Apple's handheld device by Christmas.

Although both Sun and Adobe have expressed a desire to back the iPhone for nearly a year, neither the Flash Player nor Java Virtual Machine run on the device. And it appears that little to no progress is being made. Sun and Adobe, the chief proponents of the Java and Flash platforms, respectively, repeat what they've said all year: that they are still working to get their software platforms running on the trendy phone.

Paul Krill chalks this up to technical difficulties, rather than a conspiracy by Apple to block competing platforms. (OTOH, Apple wasn’t willing to comment).

So various rumors (in Fall, Spring, Winter) that iPhone Flash was due Real Soon Now appear to have been premature, as were rumors of Java implementations.

It doesn’t make sense to introduce something like this in December anyway. Perhaps this is something Steve will announce at his keynote on Jan. 6.

NB: Although it would make for a better metaphor, it didn’t seem fair to say “iPhone Java is still dead” since it’s never been alive yet.

Comments

[PaulW:]

Just get a Nokia N or E Series, they all support Flash and have a superior feature set than an iPhone

2008 Dec 11 05:50 PM

[stockfan:]

Forget Java and Flash... Web 2.0 baby!

2008 Dec 11 11:10 PM

[Tom B:]

You've got it right. Flash (and even worse, MSFT-Silverlight) are weak, buggy, CPU-intensive technological dead ends. I wish my computer didn't have Flash-- all it does is cause browser hangs. And Java is a long way from "cutting edge"; Java is better than junk like "dot-net", but Apple's Objective C based development environment is reputed to be a decade ahead of anything else out there.


On Dec 11 11:10 PM stockfan wrote:

> Forget Java and Flash... Web 2.0 baby!

2008 Dec 12 09:30 AM

[vassar:]

Except for the tech pundits, no one wants FLASH. I hate it on my desktop and don't want it on my iPhone. It is a bloated hog which forces you into a manipulative interface that stinks.

2008 Dec 12 11:11 AM

[dilettantedude:]

They also don't have a 64 bit version of Flash for IE 60 bit. This isn't some rare thing, these are some of the most popular computers you can pick up at Best Buy for heaven's sake.

2008 Dec 12 02:51 PM

[jmmx:]

This is the difference between Apple and some other companies. Others would say "Oh, oh! customers want it. Put it out the door, out the door ASAP." But Apple will not do that. They are not perfect, but over all, they will not ship until they feel it is ready. (MobileMe the huge snafu!)

I see it as Apple standing in the way in order to protect the user experience. I just hope that it is optional for those who don't want it.

2008 Dec 14 09:53 PM