Comments on: Flash should be considered an Application Platform, not just a plug-in

By: Chuck Freedman » Archives » A theory on Apple’s future and our computing future

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:55:03 +0000

[...] There was a lot of chatter form Mac loyalists over the past week when Apple announced little news on improved Macbooks in favor of more iPod and iTunes player products. It seemed those Macbook owners of 2 years or more, that are seeing their laptops begin to fall apart (good looking, poorly built) are wanting better built and better performing computers. I’m starting to think that Apple followers are more fans of the OS than the hardware — but as long as Apple continues to control their own hardware (this is great for them and their users for many reasons), the only way to get their OS is through their systems. [...]

By: Vox

Vox — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:36:48 +0000

Flash is not a web standard. It needs to be a web standard before it can become a platform of any kind, and I don’t see that happening any time soon.

By: Luke

Luke — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:58:51 +0000

I’m not sure what you are trying to say here. That we need to start seeing the Flash Player as a platform? If that’s the case, Adobe (Macromedia at the time) already started calling it the Flash Platform with the release of Flash Player 6.

By: Joseph Labrecque

Joseph Labrecque — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:40:18 +0000

I’m really glad that people other than us Flash devs are beginning to realize this. Over the past two years, Flash as a platform has gained a ton of respect. Just 5 years ago so many people had reservations about doing anything other than animation or tutorials in Flash. Things are truly coming around in AS3. Great times!

By: Chris Rebstock

Chris Rebstock — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:53:07 +0000

Jobs already said that the reason that there is no Flash on the iPhone is that the current versions do not fit the iPhone. Flash Mobile is too weak and Desktop Flash is too resource intensive. He said that he believes a new version is required for the iPhone. I agree with him.

The iPhone is a unique platform, and Adobe prides itself on supporting all types of environments and platforms with flash, so they need to work with Apple. To a lot of people it seems as if Jobs is being unreasonable, but its not really relevant. The iPhone is Apple’s platform, so for Adobe to get Flash support on it (which is good for Apple, Adobe, Developers and End Users), they must meet Apple’s requirements.

By: Carlos Nazareno

Carlos Nazareno — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:08:50 +0000

It is.

In fact it should compete directly with DirectX and SDL.

Flash is now one of the largest and widespread of cross-development platforms today.

Runs on Macs, Linux & Windows.

By: Matt Giger

Matt Giger — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:01:39 +0000

I agree wholeheartedly with your well thought out article. As an applications developer for about 20 years I was skeptical about the ability of Flash but with AS3, I have been able to do almost anything I wanted to.

Take a look at: http://www.earthbrowser.com/media/ebtest/

With the advent of AIR, Flash can now break out of the browser sandbox and become a real platform for development that abstracts away the particulars of file system, input and rendering for a truly write once/run everywhere platform.