If you missed Steve Ballmer at CES this year, trying to say why his vision of the future of computing involves everything (even your TV) running Windows 7, then you missed a wildly lackluster show. In fact it was so BAD, that even the London Times picked up the vibe. So now comes HP waiving the tablet/slate/pad flag and saying Adobe's Flash is essential to a "full" experience. Uh… Just a sec, run that by me again.
I spent a good half hour in an excited exchange with an iPhone app developer, android wanna-be developer, and flash dev badass, and what we both agreed was, "A flash game built in 2008 isn't going to look or run great on a new tablet pc or iPad."
According to Chris, my friend, the newest version of Flash, "the full version," can interpret multi-touch gestures. So there is no reason that Flash won't be big on Android. But does Apple need Adobe's alien love-child plugin to be a success? Let's see…
Q: Has the iPhone sold well? A: Yes.
Q: Does it have Flash? A: No.
Q: Do any "normal" (meaning non-developer types) people complain about the lack of flash on their iPhones? A: No. They don't know what Flash is.
Q: Do they care if it's Flash or something else that makes their games RAWK on the iPhone/iPad/iTouch? A: No.
Q: So who cares about Flash on the iPhone again? A: Adobe.
Q: And so why is HP or Microsoft making a big deal about it? A: Anything to counter the coming onslaught of iPad success while they are polishing their presentations and demo-videos with no release date insight.
Q: And doesn't Microsoft offer something that's kind of a Flash alternative? A: Yes, Silverlight.
Q: So Microsoft doesn't really want Flash to rule the mobile market either? A: No. Microsoft wants Windows to rule the mobile market. That's all they can see. For miles and miles… I can see Windows 7 on everything. Your car should run Windows 7. Your television, computer and mobile should definately be on Windows 7.
Q: And Flash? A: Who cares about Flash again?
Q: Adobe? A: You got it.
I mean they've got to have a story to tell at the dawn of the iPad era. They've GOT to tell us how great their device is going to be, how FLASH is critical to our enjoyment of the WEB or MOVIES or getting-stuff-done. If you look at the HP "slate" video below you can see how Apple has already set the bar so high that HP/Dell/MSFT/Google/Adobe are all getting in bed together to try to stop another runaway hit. Cause if the iPad is to "slates" what the iPhone is to "phones" you've got to be a little pugilistic about it. Don't you think?
@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/unFlash
A few posts you might be interested in:
- Apple's Steve Jobs Tells Google, "Bring it!" and Calls Flash Lazy Adobe's Crash App
- iPad Posts Unsorted and un-Sordid – uber.la loves me some Apple iPad
- #CES Summary: Turn Out the Lights, the Party's Over – Name One Thing That Stood Out at CES 2010
- #CES… Wait, Are We Done With Ballmer and Co. Already? (part 2)
HP's Voodoo Blog Tries Taunting Apple: HP's Slate Device Runs The Complete Internet — Including Flash!
And here's the HP video. Does this inspire you? The masking on the hand is pathetic. This device is not yet working. I can promise you this a mock and the video was green-screened in.
