Steve Jobs started “killing” Flash 14 years ago

In April 2010, Steve Jobs published an article titled “Thoughts on Flash” and triggered the demise of the Adobe plugin

On April 29, 2010, the co-founder of Apple Steve Jobs published an opinion piece in which he clarified his thoughts on Flash – technology multimedia playback Adobe capable of manipulating vector graphics for various purposes and which was very successful in the 2000s. In the text entitled “Thoughts on Flash” (“Thoughts on Flash”, in direct translation), Jobs made a kind of appeal to the end of Flash and. , From that moment on the plugin began to be increasingly sidelined until retire in December 2020.

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You work against the Flash

In 2007, the first iPhone was launched on the market, six years after the launch of the first version of the iPod. In January 2010, Apple announced the iPad, which would be available in stores just over two months later. The three devices would be coveted by countless people around the world, but none of them supported one of the most used plugins on computers at the time: Flash.

In the text published at the end of April 2010, the then CEO of Apple explained the reasons why the Cupertino company had not joined the Adobe platform: without knowing what would have triggered it, Jobs got straight to the point.

“Flash was designed for PCs that use mice, not touchscreens that use fingers,” he said. “Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse. Most Flash websites would have to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers have to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5 , CSS and JavaScript? ”asked the controversial Apple co-creator.

For Jobs the truth is that the Flash era was behind us and something new had already emerged to take its place.

“Flash was created during the PC era, for PCs and mice. It’s a successful business for Adobe and we can understand why they want to take it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is all about low-power devices, interfaces touch, and open web standards, areas where Flash falls short,” the executive noted.

Flash was once the greatest

The plugin was born in the early 90s as a Software from the extinct company FutureWave. At the end of 1996 the company was purchased by (also extinct) Macromedia, which made the product name “Flash” official. In 2005, Adobe purchased Macromedia and eventually rebranded the tool with its name that lasted until the end of its life.

They have spent years dominating computers and the Internet, offering websites with animated banners and menus, as well as web games and animations. There was also a time when several music CDs had interactive options made with Flash that could be accessed on a computer.

However, the transition to the mobile world of smartphones required something that Flash couldn’t offer: modernity. And this is the point highlighted most frequently by Steve Jobs in the article published on the Maçã website on April 29, 2010.

“Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access the ‘full web’ because 75% of videos on the web are in Flash,” the iPhone maker said at the time. “What they don’t say is that almost all of these videos are also available in a more modern format, H.264, and can be viewed on iPhone, iPod and iPad,” he said.

Furthermore, as the mobile device market grew, it was necessary to offer products with adequate batteries and software that did not put a strain on the gadgets, another detail highlighted by Jobs.

“Videos on almost all Flash sites currently require an older generation decoder that is not implemented on mobile chips and must be run via software,” the executive wrote. “To get long battery life when playing videos, mobile devices have to decode everything hardware“, he concluded.

You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain

It’s undeniable that Flash has had great importance on the Internet for many years, but after the Apple cofounder’s article was published, things really started to fall apart. To make matters worse, several security flaws involving the plugin on Windows and macOS have increased criticism from all sides.

Interestingly, in the article “Thoughts on Flash” Jobs also mentions the issue of security. “A Symantec [antiga empresa de segurança de internet] recently pointed out that Flash has one of the worst security records in 2009,” begins the businessman. “We also know firsthand that Flash is the main cause of Mac crashes. We are working with Adobe to resolve these issues, but they have persisted for several years.”

Adobe handled the tool as best it could, but growing criticism, emerging problems, and evolving standards like JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS ended up sinking Flash even further. In 2011, Adobe announced that it would stop developing Flash for mobile phones, and in 2017 it revealed that it would only have three more years of support on any platform: In December 2020, the company released the latest version of the plug-in.

Did Steve Jobs take the first step towards killing the Flash?

Blaming Flash’s entire downfall on Steve Jobs may seem like a stretch, but there’s no denying that the former Apple CEO was right about almost everything about the plugin.

The truth is that Adobe’s tool was simply becoming obsolete and already posed risks to computers, which is why many people celebrated the end of Flash. Furthermore, the Adobe plugin began to represent an obstacle to the consolidation of touch screen mobile phones — and today you can see that the absence of Flash has given way to superior and much more dynamic technologies, such as HTML5.

Although it has been removed from Apple’s website, the text can be read in full (in English) via the web.archive.org.

Collaborator: Bruno de Blasi.

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Source: Terra

Rose

Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.