An acquaintance in Flash circles just posted a video about his new app:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rp7UNCWbyc&feature=player_embedded

Pay attention to his comments on optimization. It is the key take-away from this video. And remember all the terrible things Jobs said about Flash and third party libraries just a year ago. And remember who called it bullshitake then .

It’s safe to say that with the release of the latest Flash Builder, Apple has lost the mobile API wars. Apple’s main client for APIs will be Adobe from here on out. While Apple will most definitely continue to play silly games with co-marketing and awards to try to keep its APIs cool with developers, simple development economics will take over. This is tipping point stuff. Platforms that support Flash fully will get all the good software. The one platform that drags its feet will be more and more an afterthought for developers. iOS is still dragging its feet, with no Flash in the browser, no shared AIR runtime, and apps not allowed to download Flash content from the net.

Nice looking game.  Clean interface, smooth flow.    I will watch the video again later today as I only scanned the first minute.

Bosco (Brad Hutchings) - 13 April 2011 08:47 AM

This is tipping point stuff. Platforms that support Flash fully will get all the good software. The one platform that drags its feet will be more and more an afterthought for developers. iOS is still dragging its feet, with no Flash in the browser, no shared AIR runtime, and apps not allowed to download Flash content from the net.

Then why is this developer using the iPad as his PRIMARY testing platform and releasing it FIRST on the iPad .....then iPhone….then android…in that order????

What is your point anyway? The video contradicts your conclusion. Flash will appear on iOS devices as soon as adobe releases a mobile version that actually works well…Jobs even said he’d been waiting for a “working” mobile version 4 years ago!

If flash is sooo f’n great already, where is it on the super powerful XOOM?

Why don’t you try holding your breath till it arrives…..pretty please…. 

chiefthinker - 13 April 2011 09:53 AM

Then why is this developer using the iPad as his PRIMARY testing platform and releasing it FIRST on the iPad .....then iPhone….then android…in that order????

What is your point anyway? The video contradicts your conclusion. Flash will appear on iOS devices as soon as adobe releases a mobile version that actually works well…Jobs even said he’d been waiting for a “working” mobile version 4 years ago!

If flash is sooo f’n great already, where is it on the super powerful XOOM?

Why don’t you try holding your breath till it arrives…..pretty please…. 

Well, cheifthinker, you are what happens when someone doesn’t have any idea what he’s talking about and takes things too literally. And then you ask me what my point is! Let me spell it out for you. And yes, the technical details actually matter.

1. Search iTunes Store for “Comb Over Charlie”. It’s not there.

1a. Here’s a link to it on Android Marketplace. I played it this morning on my Nexus One and it’s a damned nice app.

2. Flash will not appear in the iOS browser until Steve Jobs is no longer CEO, if ever. It has nothing to do with technical merits and everything to do with protecting the App Store franchise from competition that will kick its ass. Well that and Jobs won’t ever admit that he was wrong, let alone deliberately lied about Flash. 90% of apps you see in the App Store could be delivered through the browser via Flash without sucking any more battery, but without Apple having a monopoly on apps on its platform.

3. iOS Packager for Flash shipped a year ago, and prompted the Apple ban on third party tools. It takes Flash source and builds real applications for iOS that include the AIR runtime. The ban was removed in September when Apple had its ass handed to it by the EU over the policy.

4. Perhaps you didn’t see Comb Over Charlie running on his Xoom? How is that possible if Flash hasn’t shipped for it? Well, that contradiction just demonstrates how little you know about what Flash is. He takes Flash source in Flash Builder, and uses the Android Packager to make a native Android app, just as he did for the iOS app. The key difference though, is that his app on Android is much smaller, weighing in at 2.57 MB. On IOS, it will be over 20 MB because Apple won’t let Adobe ship a shared library for AIR that will be used by many if not most of your iOS apps in the not too distant future. Another case of Apple screwing its customers in order to try to hang onto a monopoly on app distribution.

But the main point is that it is really inexpensive in terms of developer time to make great mobile apps. The process is even more accessible to designers and scripters. It does not require low level development or the use of low level languages like Objective-C. Low level languages have their place, but mobile app development just isn’t it for 90+% of apps. That’s one development economics lesson here.

The other is that Steve Jobs’ explanation that “write once deploy many” is problematic was and remains total bullshit. Here’s a guy who did it in short order using affordable and polished tools, despite the silly remaining hurdles that Apple puts in front of him. It should concern you that one tenet of Apple’s business strategy is to just deny the obvious for as long as it can get away with it. All that does is add costs and friction.

Bosco (Brad Hutchings) - 13 April 2011 10:27 AM

Well, cheifthinker, you are what happens when someone doesn’t have any idea what he’s talking about and takes things too literally. And then you ask me what my point is! Let me spell it out for you. And yes, the technical details actually matter.

Hey, I’m not the one that posted the link and it wasn’t me that said the app would be released on the iPad first, your buddy did! I guess he was just lying to get one “over” on me to make me look stooopid.

1. Search iTunes Store for “Comb Over Charlie”. It’s not there.

1a. Here’s a link to it on Android Marketplace. I played it this morning on my Nexus One and it’s a damned nice app.

Good for you.

2. Flash will not appear in the iOS browser until Steve Jobs is no longer CEO, if ever. It has nothing to do with technical merits and everything to do with protecting the App Store franchise from competition that will kick its ass. Well that and Jobs won’t ever admit that he was wrong, let alone deliberately lied about Flash. 90% of apps you see in the App Store could be delivered through the browser via Flash without sucking any more battery, but without Apple having a monopoly on apps on its platform.

3. iOS Packager for Flash shipped a year ago, and prompted the Apple ban on third party tools. It takes Flash source and builds real applications for iOS that include the AIR runtime. The ban was removed in September when Apple had its ass handed to it by the EU over the policy.

I like the fact that Apple does not want to be held hostage to some 3rd party like adobe and wants to insure a uniform user experience.

4. Perhaps you didn’t see Comb Over Charlie running on his Xoom? How is that possible if Flash hasn’t shipped for it? Well, that contradiction just demonstrates how little you know about what Flash is. He takes Flash source in Flash Builder, and uses the Android Packager to make a native Android app, just as he did for the iOS app. The key difference though, is that his app on Android is much smaller, weighing in at 2.57 MB. On IOS, it will be over 20 MB because Apple won’t let Adobe ship a shared library for AIR that will be used by many if not most of your iOS apps in the not too distant future. Another case of Apple screwing its customers in order to try to hang onto a monopoly on app distribution.

Perhaps you didn’t see it running on an iPad first!
How is that possible without flash? It even was demoed on an iPhone 3GS running at 40fps…again without flash….therefore iOS MUST be shipping with flash!  

I don’t care if the iOS app is bigger if, its an app I want.

But the main point is that it is really inexpensive in terms of developer time to make great mobile apps. The process is even more accessible to designers and scripters. It does not require low level development or the use of low level languages like Objective-C. Low level languages have their place, but mobile app development just isn’t it for 90+% of apps. That’s one development economics lesson here.

The other is that Steve Jobs’ explanation that “write once deploy many” is problematic was and remains total bullshit. Here’s a guy who did it in short order using affordable and polished tools, despite the silly remaining hurdles that Apple puts in front of him. It should concern you that one tenet of Apple’s business strategy is to just deny the obvious for as long as it can get away with it. All that does is add costs and friction.

I’m all for developers using “better tools” but I also want a consistent UE on my iOS products.

Let me know when someone writes a program like garage band (using flash or air or whatever) for iPad and sells it for $4.99 then we can talk about added cost!

@chiefthinker:  I can tell that you’re still approaching this with the misunderstanding that “Flash is in the browser”. That’s just one way to deploy it.

As to user experience… You will care about bigger apps when you want 100 of these on your device. That’s 2 GB of storage minimum on iOS, while 200 MB on platforms that support shared libraries. You’ll also care when you have to update 100 apps to get benefits from one update to AIR, while on platforms that support it properly, one update of the shared library will improve 100 apps. These benefits might be drawing optimizations, power conservation, critical bug fixes, etc. I wonder if developers will even bother updating AIR-based apps for iOS every time a new runtime becomes available.

Anyway, you support the same “not invented here” approach that Apple took in the early 1990s, and it will have the same predictable results. The Apple niche will crow about how the Apple way is better while development economics simply let the whole world pass it up without much effort. It is really a shame. Apple can still promote a great product without being a control freak and without ensuring that the world can pass it by without even stepping on the gas.

Oh, your Garage Band example? Another app that probably should have been written in Flash. I’d expect to see 100 variations before years end by lots of small developers. That app is much more design than rocket science.

4. Perhaps you didn’t see Comb Over Charlie running on his Xoom? How is that possible if Flash hasn’t shipped for it? Well, that contradiction just demonstrates how little you know about what Flash is.

Perhaps you didn’t see it running on an iPad first!
How is that possible without flash?

Bosco (Brad Hutchings) - 13 April 2011 11:30 AM

@chiefthinker:  I can tell that you’re still approaching this with the misunderstanding that “Flash is in the browser”. That’s just one way to deploy it.

Which is it Brad?? You use it as an example to show how little I know but when I use the EXACT same example of the iPad “having” flash ..you tell me how limited my understanding is!

So tell me Brad…is the XOOM ACTUALLY shipping with flash installed and working or not?? Just a simple yes or no.

Oh, your Garage Band example? Another app that probably should have been written in Flash. I’d expect to see 100 variations before years end by lots of small developers. That app is much more design than rocket science.

Why should it have been written in flash??....so Apple’s can place it into the android marketplace?

Better get to developing your flash android apps soon as it seems google is CLOSING their system more and more each and every day!

Check out these problems facing android and the open (soon to be closed) ecosystem. First from a droid user

http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/04/14/exclusive-vulnerability-in-skype-for-android-is-exposing-your-name-phone-number-chat-logs-and-a-lot-more/

And did you read this???
http://gigaom.com/2011/04/07/google-should-drop-androids-open-talk/

Do Not Anger the Alpha Android
Google cracks down on the chaos of Android Land; some mobile partners aren’t happy

Playtime is over in Android Land. Over the last couple of months Google (GOOG) has reached out to the major carriers and device makers backing its mobile operating system with a message: There will be no more willy-nilly tweaks to the software. No more partnerships formed outside of Google’s purview. From now on, companies hoping to receive early access to Google’s most up-to-date software will need approval of their plans. And they will seek that approval from Andy Rubin, the head of Google’s Android group.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_15/b4223041200216.htm

Then Bloomberg

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-15/nhn-files-complaints-against-google-to-south-korean-regulator.html

What this is all does is show that Google is very much wedded to the idea of calling Android an open project. They love the way that sounds. And they’d likely face some embarrassment if they abandoned that. But the reality is that the open feel that Android began with is slowly being whittled away and not without good reason. On the fragmentation front, it’s a major concern of developers. A recent report from Robert W. Baird & Co. found that 55 percent of Android developers find OS fragmentation to be a meaningful or huge problem. It makes sense for Google to assert more control to combat that. To keep the ecosystem attractive for developers and ultimately free of larger fragmentation issues that affect customers, Google probably should exert more authority. But various measures in pursuing that such as dangling early access and leaving other manufacturers behind, can undercut the open rhetoric of Google.

Hope you and adobe stay on the “good” side of google and they remember to “do no evil”! If it gives you any comfort…..just remember .....even the great Steve Jobs got screwed over more than one…first Sculley then Schmidt…so you will not be the only one that ever got screwed over twice.

More fanbot diarhea… So long as there is side-loading, the Android ecosystem is open. And just because a lot of press people decide that Google needs to act more like Apple in spite of stealing a market in less than a year by being the near opposite of Apple, doesn’t mean Google will do that. Their key players are true believers in “open” bolstered by a new CEO who is a true believer and a phenomenal success in phones. Withholding early access is not being closed. It’s called influence. It’s perfectly consistent with how “open” systems have worked since the beginning of the industry. To have a cow and claim Google has abandoned “open principles” is to ignore almost 40 years of industry history.

But you still haven’t explained to me why, if my buddy said he’s deploy his app on iPad first, it is now available for Android and not yet available for iOS. See, I know the answer without asking him. Low friction is the leading indicator of platform dominance. It was how I knew a year ago that Android phones would surpass the iPhone in fairly short order. And it’s how I know that despite all the apparent messiness in Android tablet land, it’s positioned for a repeat. I also expect Windows tablets, like the Eee Slate, to make a respectable showing this year. Portable Photoshop for $1800, that’s what Eee Slate means right now. Just amazing.

More fanbot diarhea… So long as there is side-loading, the Android ecosystem is open.

That’s like saying as long as jailbreaking is available the iOS is open too.

....doesn’t mean Google will do that. Their key players are true believers in “open” bolstered by a new CEO who is a true believer and a phenomenal success in phones.

You sound like your a personal friend of all the players….. LOL

You really should open your eyes and actually read what GOOGLE themselves are saying and give up believing in your psychic abilities.

Again from http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_15/b4223041200216_page_2.htm

This is the new reality described by about a dozen executives working at key companies in the Android ecosystem. Some of those affected include LG, Toshiba, Samsung, and even Facebook, which has been trying to develop an Android device. There have been enough run-ins to trigger complaints with the Justice Dept., according to a person familiar with the matter. The Google that once welcomed all comers to help get its mobile software off the ground has become far more discriminating—especially for companies that want to include Google services such as search and maps on their hardware. Google also gives chip and device makers that abide by its rules a head start in bringing Android products to market, according to the executives.

For the never-anointed—Dell (DELL) and Acer, for example—Android Land can be a harsh place. Hardware makers outside the club often follow their rivals to stores by several months, a virtual death sentence in this market.

Sounds pretty open to me….but wait…here is what GOOGLE uses to justify its actions…sound like anyone you hate??

Google says its procedures are about quality control, fixing bugs early, and building toward a “common denominator” experience, says John Lagerling, director of global Android partnerships at Google. “After that, the customization can begin.”

Gee…they are trying to limit the tweaking (fragmentation) to provide a consistent user experience!....How DARE they!!! That’s something ONLY Jobs/Apple would do!

You obviously did not read any of the article and the people it QUOTES!....but wait it gets even better..

Over the past few months, according to several people familiar with the matter, Google has been demanding that Android licensees abide by “non-fragmentation clauses” that give Google the final say on how they can tweak the Android code—to make new interfaces and add services—and in some cases whom they can partner with.

WHAT????? ....HOW they can tweak the “open” android!!!.....WHOM they can partner with!??..... Hope they don’t put adobe on the “do not partner with list”  Sure sounds like a company that are TRUE believers of “open” source!

Their key players are true believers in “open” bolstered by a new CEO who is a true believer

Google’s Rubin says that such clauses have always been part of the Android license, but people interviewed for this story say that Google has recently tightened its policies. Facebook, for example, has been working to fashion its own variant of Android for smartphones. Executives at the social network are unhappy that Google gets to review Facebook’s tweaks to Android, say two people who weren’t comfortable being named talking about the business. Google has also tried to hold up the release of Verizon (VZ) Android devices that make use of Microsoft’s (MSFT) rival Bing search engine, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

WOW! imagine google not helping Facebook and having FINAL say on their “OPEN” version of android…. outrageous…I’m sure Page will come to the rescue….NOT!

Now,

But you still haven’t explained to me why, if my buddy said he’s deploy his app on iPad first, it is now available for Android and not yet available for iOS.

First, you never asked me! Second, how the hell should I know why your buddy would say one thing and then do another! I am NOT a f’n mind reader like you seem to be.

See, I know the answer without asking him. Low friction is the leading indicator of platform dominance.

It also maybe the fact anyone can publish anything in the wonderfully secure marketplace while it actually needs to be “approved” to be in the APP store. Gee that was a hard thing to figure out…HUH? Maybe he is improving the app before he submits it to Apple?

I will make this bet with you though…your buddy will make MORE money from the iOS platform than the android platform once it is in both app stores. Wanna take that bet?

And it’s how I know that despite all the apparent messiness in Android tablet land, it’s positioned for a repeat.

Apparent??...How quaint. But Flash is not just poorly implemented on android…..Here read a little more..

http://m.wired.com/reviews/2011/04/blackberry-playbook/all/1

Any tablet debuting more than a year after the Apple’s market-dominating iPad needs an edge. For the PlayBook, that edge is support for Adobe Flash, a feature that the iPad is famously lacking. RIM says it took over two years of working with Adobe to bring Flash to its tablet.

.....continued below

so after working with adobe directly for 2 whole years….4 ENTIRE years after the iOS made its appearance on the iPhone…what do we get??....an…example of why Flash will dominate mobile gaming???

Two years may not have been enough. During a round of Plants vs. Zombies, gameplay bogged down whenever the animation got intense. Every time I tried to access a Flash game on Facebook, the browser crashed. Yes, every single time. Say goodbye to your well-tended crops, Farmvillians.

So yeah, I guess you must be right….4 YEARS after Jobs said flash was not ready for “prime time” mobile platforms there is not one implementation that is worth a shit even after working CLOSELY with adobe for 2 whole years.

Next you’ll tell me its all Jobs fault that adobe cannot get its act together ......if Apple would just allow Flash the world would be a better place and we could all hold hands and sing kumbaya.

I just don’t know how us fanbois will be able to live without flash and the wonders that it brings.

Oh…and finally, I see you conveniently ignored my actual question whether the XOOM is currently shipping with flash installed??

Yes, I know you can get a “beta” version from the android marketplace. But come on…4 f’n years after the iPhone and STILL no flash for a device that has 10X CPU power and 4 years of close google-adobe cooperation and they still can’t ship a KEY selling feature installed…

Yeah!,.... I wanna ride that horse.

This just in….

http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-features/55457-half-baked-honeycomb-hobbles-t-mobiles-g-slate

Half-baked Honeycomb hobbles T-Mobile’s G-Slate
Posted on Apr 19th 2011 by Trent Nouveau

Unfortunately, various reviews of the device confirm that Flash 10.2 (beta) is quite buggy, with the unit prone to the occasional reboot when set to idle mode.

4 years

Flash is sooooooo…...Bi-Winning!