Lack of Flash support frustrates companies

A number of publishers have reacted to reports of Steve Jobs' Flash-bashing comments. The Apple CEO allegedly compared the lack of Flash support on the iPad to the company's decision behind eliminating the floppy drive from the iMac. The technology was also labeled a security risk and "CPU hog," while converting Flash material to HTML5 was said by Jobs to be "trivial."

Publishers and developers have sent a variety of e-mail responses to Gawker in the time since the original story broke. "For Jobs to have said what he's said genuiney flies in the face of common sense and I'd sadly have to describe [him] as naive," quipped a creative director at an Ad Age Top 50 Interactive Agency.

"It requires broad changes across multiple properties," said an online producer for an unnamed medium-sized newspaper. "Also, using Flash for interactive graphics is irreplaceable. Not just slideshows, but special section graphics and interactive presentations can be embedded on story pages quickly and easily."

"Steve is not addressing the fact that the web world is a plethora of mostly inexperienced scaffolding and experimental jumble fused together as an overnight crunch to satisfy demanding clientelle," said a freelance designer. "Not everyone has a team of experts working full-time to adhere to the perfection which Mr. Mac's of engineers offer..."

Despite the criticism, most publishers are attempting to work around Apple's terms. National Public Radio and the Wall Street Journal are both working to create iPad-optimized versions of their websites, without using Flash. Adobe also offers a Packager utility that automatically converts Flash-based apps to code allowed on an iPhone, although Apple's feud with the company leaves many publishers nervous that the Packager might be banned.

by MacNN Staff