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Jobs Getting The Lash For Flash Comments

It looks like Steven Jobs messed with the wrong Web animation software.

With the future of online content consumption on the line, Apple's CEO recently defended his decision not to support Adobe Flash on the iPad to executives at The Wall Street Journal. Going even further, sources tell ValleyWag that Jobs called Flash a "CPU hog," a source of "security holes," and a dying technology. "We don't spend a lot of energy on old technology," Jobs said before comparing Flash to other technologies that Apple has rendered obsolete, including floppy drives and CDs.

"Welcome to the nasty side of Jobs's famous Reality Distortion Field," writes ValleyWag.

"Who is he kidding?" asks an incredulous VentureBeat. "Jobs knows Flash isn't dying, it's taking off like crazy, delivering an estimated 3 out of 4 Web videos."

What's more, like many publishers, the Journal is heavily invested in Flash as a way to deploy video, photographic slide shows, and other interactive "infographics" and news applications.

Perhaps as a result, shortly after Jobs met with Journal execs, editorial board member Holman Jenkins wrote an op-ed in the paper about how Apple "is in danger of becoming preoccupied with zero-sum maneuvering versus hated rivals." His primary and lead example? Jobs' decision to keep Flash off the iPad.

"The problem with Jobs's approach is that it's costing him credibility," concludes The Guardian. "The suggestion that Apple might end up rolling out 'increasingly junky devices' to lock users into its content shop was probably not the result that Jobs had in mind when he showed off the iPad."

"The fun of following this will be to watch how many content publishers follow Jobs' lead and how many don't," write GottaBeMobile.com. "Other Tablet OEMs are already beginning to tout that their devices will support Flash, so there's a potential opening there once the verdict on the iPad starts to become clearer in about 5 to 6 weeks or so."

The Register (UK) adds: "We're not quite so convinced that Mr. Murdoch (owner of the Journal, Fox News, Sky TV, The Times, The Sun and so forth) will be quite so willing to re-engineer his product to suit Apple." Quite. "At least, not without significant concessions on the Cupertino side."

Read the whole story at Guardian (UK) et al. »

1 comment about "Jobs Getting The Lash For Flash Comments".
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  1. Jeff Messineo from Swift Media, February 22, 2010 at 5:18 p.m.

    Jobs is starting to show himself as out of touch. The days of the Apple faithful blindly following (Particularly when it comes to Flash) are long gone. The ONLY reason video has finally begun to make it as a medium on the internet is because of Flash Video embed.... Take it from me, I have fought in the video platform wars and I don't want any of it back....Think about it: "Should we use Windows or QUicktime or Realplayer? what's an mpeg? or mov or avi or rlp or, or, or..... YouTube and Hulu live because Apple jumped ship and Adobe jumped on and finally put video in the most prolific playback app - er - 'browser': Flash. Stop the posturing and admit it, Apple lost BIG on this one... Signed, a developer who has dug in those trenches.

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