January 30th, 2010 by admin

I have a lot of Apple products, and I love them.  They look beautiful, and they are a pleasure to use.  I use pc’s and Windows devices and Nokia phones a lot as well so I do have something to compare them to, before you ask.  I used to say that OSX vs Windows was like Ferrari v Ford: you can do exactly the same things in a Ford as you can in a Farrari, but the Ferrari is a better experience to drive.

So, I love my Apple products.  This is different, however, from loving Apple as a company.  I don’t love or hate any company, they exist for their own financial ends and any feeling of ‘loyalty’ toward them is misplaced.   Companies change.  The next set of cool rebels are just around the corner, leaving yesterdays heroes looking like reactionary dads faced with some horrific new form of techno.

I saw the keynote, and I’ve read the blogs, and I’ve seen the videos – particularly this one – and from being initially hugely underwhelmed I now do see the iPad as another super-cool device, with the sleek look and the new gestures and everything.  I want one.  But will I buy one?

No.

And here’s why: there will be no Flash Player for it.

Now, before you start shouting, I am not a ’supporter’ of Flash.  Neither am I a hater.  People who love or hate Flash are deeply misguided.  Flash does not exist as a tangible entity you can love or hate.  What you love or hate is what people do with Flash, not Flash itself.  There is a lot of bad Flash.  Really bad Flash.  And an awful lot of it.  However, to blame Flash for this is akin to placing the blame for a terrible book on the paper it is printed on, rather than the author.

The simple fact is that there is a small percentage of good, useful, well designed and developed Flash on the web, and when I buy a device to surf the web I demand the choice to be able to see and use it.  If the Flash is bad, then I’ll do my surfing elsewhere thank you very much – it’s my decision.  For Apple to make that decision for me, well, it smells of deception, and control, and revenue, and other things you wouldn’t associate with the ‘cool’ or the ‘rebellious’.

Yes, yes I know – I have an iPhone and I love it.  I actually accept the lack of a Flash Player on the iPhone, because subconciously I see the iPhone as a small device that necessitates compromises over the ‘full’ experience.  I have no other ‘micro surfing’ experience to compare it to.  Apple blamed ‘performance’ for blocking Flash.  Well, maybe so. Maybe. It’s more likely to be an revenue decision linked to the app-store. Don’t think it comes down to support for open standards either, (as some people amazingly seem to believe).  If open standards presented a platform for taking revenue away from the app store then Apple would block them too.

Now, Flash on the iPad should suffer from no ‘performance issues’ as far as I can see, particularly with 10.1 appearing to run so well on a huge number of devices from different manufacturers.  And, on a device that is pretty much netbook size I will not accept any compromise over my web surfing experience.  I’d feel cheated to have to use Flash sites and apps on a separate device having shelled out for an iPad – and so should you.  The choice should be yours.

So, I love my macs, and I love my iPhone.  But I have no feelings either way for Apple themselves, and I won’t be buying an iPad.  I’ll wait to see what multitouch tablet competition arises from the Android world – I have a feeling it will give me the whole web, instead of the web that someone else has decided is fit for me to see.