Read from the CEO himself after the break.

Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe’s founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years. The two companies worked closely together to pioneer desktop publishing and there were many good times. Since that golden era, the companies have grown apart. Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with their Acrobat products. Today the two companies still work together to serve their joint creative customers – Mac users buy around half of Adobe’s Creative Suite products – but beyond that there are few joint interests.

I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven – they say we want to protect our App Store – but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain.

First, there’s “Open”.

Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.

Apple has many proprietary products too. Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards. Apple’s mobile devices all ship with high performance, low power implementations of these open standards. HTML5, the new web standard that has been adopted by Apple, Google and many others, lets web developers create advanced graphics, typography, animations and transitions without relying on third party browser plug-ins (like Flash). HTML5 is completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of which Apple is a member.

Apple even creates open standards for the web. For example, Apple began with a small open source project and created WebKit, a complete open-source HTML5 rendering engine that is the heart of the Safari web browser used in all our products. WebKit has been widely adopted. Google uses it for Android’s browser, Palm uses it, Nokia uses it, and RIM (Blackberry) has announced they will use it too. Almost every smartphone web browser other than Microsoft’s uses WebKit. By making its WebKit technology open, Apple has set the standard for mobile web browsers.

Second, there’s the “full web”.

Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web’s video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video.

Another Adobe claim is that Apple devices cannot play Flash games. This is true. Fortunately, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free. There are more games and entertainment titles available for iPhone, iPod and iPad than for any other platform in the world.

Third, there’s reliability, security and performance.

Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash.

In addition, Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it. Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we’re glad we didn’t hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform?

Fourth, there’s battery life.

To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264 – an industry standard that is used in every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies.

Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained.

When websites re-encode their videos using H.264, they can offer them without using Flash at all. They play perfectly in browsers like Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome without any plugins whatsoever, and look great on iPhones, iPods and iPads.

Fifth, there’s Touch.

Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?

Even if iPhones, iPods and iPads ran Flash, it would not solve the problem that most Flash websites need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices.

Sixth, the most important reason.

Besides the fact that Flash is closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn’t support touch based devices, there is an even more important reason we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. We have discussed the downsides of using Flash to play video and interactive content from websites, but Adobe also wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on our mobile devices.

We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.

This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool. The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor’s platforms.

Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe’s goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps. And Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple’s platforms. For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X.

Our motivation is simple – we want to provide the most advanced and innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to stand directly on the shoulders of this platform and create the best apps the world has ever seen. We want to continually enhance the platform so developers can create even more amazing, powerful, fun and useful applications. Everyone wins – we sell more devices because we have the best apps, developers reach a wider and wider audience and customer base, and users are continually delighted by the best and broadest selection of apps on any platform.

Conclusions.

Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.

The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple’s mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And the 200,000 apps on Apple’s App Store proves that Flash isn’t necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games.

New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.

Steve Jobs
April, 2010

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TechCrunch reported a varying number of iPhone 3G S devices sold over the launch week, starting June 19. Original news by Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster claimed the number to be around 750,000 iPhone 3G S devices sold.

Apple, on the other hand, sent out a press release, adding an additional 1/3 to the original number, claiming to have officially sold over 1 million iPhone 3G S devices. This is also backed by word from Apple CEO himself, Steve Jobs who (reportedly) recently had a liver transplant.

Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning. With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever.

Apple also reported that over six million customers have downloaded the new iPhone OS 3.0 software update in the first five days since its release on June 17, 2009.

Well, definitely unbelievable numbers, but it’s true!

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After much anticipation, including rumored (yes, rumors!) delays – Apple’s iPhone OS 3.0 finally sees the day with its release for both iPhone and iPod touch. Build number for this release is 3.0/7A341 – it seems to match the GM seed version that I have for my iPod touch.

Users can get the download straight from iTunes by clicking on the Check for Updates button. iPhone owners get the update for free, while iPod touch owners will need to purchase the update for only $9.95 – this is due to Apple’s accounting practice.

Most of the features are already quite familiar with those of us who swarm Apple news and rumor sites daily. Here’s a list of changes listed by Apple – they cover both the iPhone and iPod touch:

• Cut, Copy & Paste – self-explanatory, one of the most requested feature debuts with this new update
• Landscape keyboard – built-in apps now have this feature, something which should be there since day 1, if you ask me
• MMS – iPhone only, not many people sends MMS, but since you asked for it, please go ahead and make full use of it
• Spotlight Search – find what you’re looking for across the device from one convenient place
• Voice Memo – capture a memo, meeting or any audio recording, iPod touch owners will need to attach a microphone
• Internet Tethering – iPhone only, now you can share your internet connection with your laptop via Bluetooth or USB
• Peer-to-Peer Gaming – now you could waste more time, with a friend, provided the game supports it
• Push Notifications – apps can now receive information and let you know its there, even then the app is not running
• Movies, TV Shows and Audiobooks purchase via Wi-Fi – get the best entertainment titles from iTunes directly on your device

And many more. Head on over to Apple’s site for more details on the update. iPhone users. iPod touch users.

One more thing. If you device has been unlocked somehow using one of the (ahem) available utilities, I’d suggest that you wait for an official unlocker to be released.

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The iPhone OS, just like its big brother, Mac OS X, allows an application to be quit, forcefully – hence the name force quit. On the Mac OS X, you’ll simply press Command+Option+Escape key combinations. On the iPhone however, things seem to have gone into muddy waters, now that iPhone OS 3.0 as well as the iPhone 3G S was announced.

During the keynote presentation on Monday, June 8, 2009 – we were all told about a new function for the iPhone 3G S, and that is the Voice Control features. Activating Voice Control on the iPhone 3G S can be done by simply holding the Home button. As you can see, the Home button used to be the magic button that force quits an application when held for about 5 seconds. You’ll notice that when the application exits and the home screen reappears. Here’s a video I did some time back, demonstrating how to force quit the Safari application.

The function is now missing in iPhone OS 3.0 – or shall I say, enhanced. Force quitting an app in iPhone OS 3.0 can still be done, with an extra step.

If you are one of the lucky Lukes (or Leia, so to speak) to have iPhone OS 3.0 installed, try this the next time you want to force quit a misbehaving application. Hold the power button for a few seconds until you see the “slide to power off” prompt. Let go of the power button and hold the Home button until you see the application disappear and the home screen reappears.

Force quitting can be good avenues, not only to exit a misbehaving or frozen app. It’s also a good practice to quit background apps like Safari and Mail, which take up precious memory, especially before starting a game. Also, since most games save its state when you quit, you could actually force quit it if you want to prevent the game state from being saved. That’s what I did most of the time to somehow ‘cheat’ in certain games. Try it!

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Phil Schiller’s keynote brought to us new products, ranging from new (and now cheaper) MacBook Pro family of notebooks, Snow Leopard features preview as well as what everyone’s been waiting for, the iPhone.

After many months of rumors across the internet, Apple has finally let the cat out of the bag yesterday, with the announcement of a new revised iPhone, dubbed the iPhone 3G S.

Just one year after the original iPhone 3G was announced and then released, the new updated iPhone 3G S boasts new features like larger storage capacity (32GB option), faster CPU translating to faster everything, 7.2 Mbps HSDPA modem for faster data over the network, digital compass that provides a much-welcomed assistance when using mapping applications, as well as an upgraded 3 mega pixel camera capable of recording video.

Some neat little additions worth mentioning include an auto-focus feature for the camera that works across both still and video modes – exactly like what the rumors speculated. Also, iPhone 3G S is your mobile iMovie in action. Any video clips taken can be edited right from the iPhone itself and then shared across email, MMS or even for uploading to YouTube. Both the auto-focus and video-editing feature set was not seen in any other smartphones so far.

Check out the specs for the new iPhone 3G S here: http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html. One nifty little feature I noticed is that the iPhone 3G S has got a fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating for the multi-touch display, something that the original iPhone and iPhone 3G doesn’t have.

The new iPhone 3G S will start to be available this coming June 19. It will gradually roll out across the other countries where iPhones are available, starting July 9. Pricing for the iPhone 3G S starts at $199 for the 16GB model, and $299 for the 32GB model. Apple decided to maintain the original iPhone 3G at $99 for the 8GB model, thus opening up for a much higher adoption rate. Note that these prices are valid in the USA and comes with a contract with (urgh!) AT&T.

Apple has put up a 15-minute guided tour video of the new iPhone 3G S, spelling out its new features. Follow this link to whet your appetite: http://www.apple.com/iphone/guidedtour/.

You might also want to check out the WWDC 2009 Keynote Address, available in both standard and high-definition format streams here: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/keynote/.

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