Steve Jobs writes open letter on Flash and iPhone OS

Possibly responding to much criticism over Apple's decisions around the iPhone OS and Flash, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has penned an open letter on the matter, titled "Thoughts on Flash." The letter lists six reasons that Apple believes support of Flash is unwarranted.

Here are the six issues that Jobs noted:

• Openness: Flash is proprietary. Meanwhile, web standards such as HTML5, CSS and JavaScript are not. "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." Of course, the iPhone OS and the App Store are pretty closed off as well, particularly what Apple will and will not allow in the App Store (like Flash). Jobs was "good enough" to admit that (though not the App Store part).

• "Full Web": Lack of support for Flash means there are tons of those "grey boxes" sitting around on sites that have Flash content. In his letter, Jobs said much video content is available using the “more modern” H.264 format. He points to the YouTube app and other video apps on the iPhone OS. He sidesteps the issue that the iPhone cannot play Flash games by noting games in the App Store. Of course, this does nothing to quench the thirst of those wanting to play FarmVille without an app.

• Reliability, security and performance: Jobs citing Symantec, noted Flash as having “one of the worst security records in 2009.” He added that Flash “has not performed well on mobile devices.”

• Battery life: Jobs writes that Flash cuts mobile battery life in half. “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.” It's hard to imagine anyone playing Flash video for 5 straight hours on a mobile device, but also, it's a lot easier to handle on a device with a user-replaceable battery, unlike the iPhone.

• Touch format: Jobs asserts that, with rollovers (fro example), Flash is made for a mouse-driven experience, not touch-screens. While a valid argument, it's probably not something most end users care about.

• Adobe's attempt to create Flash apps: It's interesting that Jobs is using this as an argument. If Flash was allowed on the iPhone OS, this would not exist as an issue. It's basically all about the decision Apple made to ban cross-compilers and other things like run-time engines from the iPhone OS. Jobs said, " 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. "

Therein, actually, lies the crux of the new restriction in the developer agreement, as we have said previously. It's not just about Flash. It's about prevent cross-compilation and other methods of developing cross-platform apps. In that way, since Apple has the major share of the market, by far, among the newest smartphone platforms, Apple will make developers think twice about developing for, say, Android, as well, as it will require a totally different set of code.

Truthfully, Apple can do what it wants to do. It has so much market share, developers are probably not going to abandon it for platforms, such as Android, that are both more open and less restrictive in their Marketplace policies.

In and of itself, the letter offers no new arguments or information. What's most interesting is that a CEO found it necessary to take the time out to write such a missive.