Adobe Flash is a multimedia technology that powered some of the most iconic websites in
the internet’s early days like Newgrounds and Homestarrunner. It allowed content to
be viewable whether you were on Mac, PC, or Linux, and it became so popular that almost
every website had some form of Flash technology. But today, the internet looks a lot different.
Flash has gone extinct, and Apple had a lot to do with its demise. So in this video,
I’m going to explain the history of Flash, and how Apple accelerated its demise.
This is Greg with Apple Explained, and I want to thank Squarespace for sponsoring this video.
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So Flash has a long history, starting in 1993 as a piece of software called SmartSketch. Designed as
a graphics editor for the Mac that was optimized for pen computing, which was a popular trend at
the time. But the stylus computing hype fizzled out after a couple years as the internet became
the next big thing. So SmartSketch was rewritten as a web animation tool called FutureSplash,
released in 1995. It allowed web developers to add custom animations to their websites,
which was a novel concept at the time. And FutureSplash eventually attracted the attention
of a software company called Macromedia in 1996, who purchased FutureSplash and shortened its name
to ‘Flash.’ Macromedia was vital in modernizing the software and encouraging widespread adoption.
In fact, Flash became so capable that it wasn’t only being used for website animations,
but to create entire websites themselves. Although there were drawbacks.
Search engines couldn’t read content that was hidden inside a Flash website. So search
engine optimization was severely crippled. And because the entire website had to be pre-loaded,
Flash sites ended up being much slower than HTML. But because of its expansive functionality,
Flash was quickly adopted by web designers looking to do more than what HTML and CSS allowed.
This Flash uprising gave way to experiences never seen before on the Internet.
Websites like Newgrounds and YouTube were possible because of flash game, animation,
and video technology. The importance of Flash in the internet’s history cannot be understated.
In 2005, Adobe acquired Macromedia and became the sole owner of Flash. The
technology had become ubiquitous. Web browsers automatically included Flash in their downloads,
and it was the #1 tool of web developers. But despite its popularity, Flash still had
problems. And that’s what discouraged Apple from including the technology on their mobile devices.
You see, the Mac had supported flash just like PCs, but when it came to the iPhone,
Apple decided not to support it. And they had some good reasons why. Adobe actually
tried to get a mobile version of Flash working on the iPhone before its launch, which would
optimize power consumption and patch it security flaws, but the product failed to materialize.
This put Apple in a difficult position. They could support flash anyway, giving users access to many
of their favorite flash-based websites, but those sites would quickly drain the iPhone’s battery
and even crash it’s web browser altogether. So to prevent this instability, Apple decided not
to support flash on the iPhone. And Adobe appeared to be okay with the decision, at least initially.
Users also weren’t too upset with the lack of Flash support,
likely because they used apps to access websites rather than the Safari browser. But the drama
between Adobe and Apple came to a head with the release of iPad. Steve Jobs called the tablet the
most important thing he’d ever done, and based on its sales success, he was right. One million
units were sold in just 28 days, compared to the iPhone’s 74 days. iPad was actually the fastest
selling electronic device ever. But there was one problem analysts and journalists kept bring up:
it’s lack of flash support. And Adobe wanted as much attention brought to the issue as possible.
With mobile web browsing on the rise, and desktop browsing declining,
the relevance of Flash was being threatened. Apple had been focusing their efforts on encouraging
development of HTML5 as not only an alternative to Flash, but also an eventual replacement.
And that made it much easier to do things like create your own website. With Flash, the process
was extremely complicated and required hiring a web developer. But now we have Squarespace,
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Alright now Apple didn’t push for Flash to be replaced because of some personal
vendetta against Adobe, it was simply because HTML5 offered a better browsing experience.
Especially when it came to mobile devices. With HTML5, there are no plugins to install,
it doesn’t require as much processing power, and it consumes less power. But perhaps the
biggest benefit is that HTML5 is open source. So Apple can directly contribute to its development,
without relying on Adobe to fix security holes or optimization issues.
But Adobe wasn’t going to let Flash go down without a fight. They immediately began
criticizing Apple’s devices, saying they can’t access “the full web” because 75% of
videos online are in flash. But Apple pushed back, asserting that most video content was available in
other formats or as iOS apps. And while that was true when it came to the iPhone, many iPad users
browsed the internet with Safari, rather than downloading individual apps. This made its lack
of flash support more visible than on iPhone, since users would see holes in websites where
flash content should be. Steve Jobs was actually asked about this issue directly during the All
Things Digital conference [clip] So while Jobs was right in saying lots of flash content was being
updated to HTML5 and therefore become visible on iPads, he avoided answering the question of entire
flash-based websites not even being accessible. It sounded like a really big flaw in the iPad at
the time, and competitors like Samsung used it to their advantage when promoting their own tablets.
While Adobe used it as an opportunity to create as much bad press for Apple as possible.
They regularly attacked Apple by claiming their decision to not support Flash was anti-competitive
and potentially illegal. That Apple was protecting the App Store by preventing content from being
delivered through Flash, and that Apple preferred closed systems, unlike Flash which is open. But in
reality, the opposite was true. Flash was wholly owned by Adobe, who had control over every change
made to the product. While HTML5, the technology Apple was encouraging developers to adopt,
was literally open source. Anyone could contribute to it, make changes, or add features. Adobe
never filed a lawsuit against Apple, but their accusations were strong enough that Steve Jobs
was forced to publicly respond. He wrote a letter called “thoughts on Flash” where he thoroughly
outlined why Apple decided not to support the product on iOS. He wrote, “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?” He ended the letter by saying, “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.”
And while Jobs managed to predict the future with stunning accuracy,
that letter didn’t include all the reasons why Apple ditched Flash.
Six years later, it was revealed in a series of tweets from Bob Burrough,
who used to be a software development manager at Apple, that the technological issues with Flash
was only one part of the equation. The other, had everything to do with their CEO Shantanu
Narayen. According to Burrough, Apple's stated reasons for not supporting Flash were poor UI
and excessive power consumption. However, Steve Jobs explained to the team at Apple
that the main reason was that Shantanu Narayen would not take his phone calls.
He conceded that fixing bugs in the software were mere engineering problems. However,
without an open dialog with Adobe, he couldn't count on them to do it.
But despite all of the drama surrounding the lack of Flash support on iPad,
it didn’t seem to stop customers from buying it. The iPad continued
to dominate the tablet market and the issue became less and less relevant
as websites started transitioning away from Flash, to HTML5. Just as Jobs predicted.
Eventually, Adobe faced the music and announced in 2017
that they’d stop supporting Flash in 2020. Which they did on December 31st,
and they blocked Flash content from running completely on January 12th, 2021.
So that is how Apple helped kill Flash. Thanks for watching till the end,
and don’t forget to subscribe to help decide which topics I cover in the future.