Apple iPad Skips Web Flash -- Call It Deja Vu [UPDATE]

(MoneyWatch)  The Apple iPad won't support Internet Flash, just like the iPhone and iPod Touch before it, making the iPad have crippled web surfing and limiting video gaming options.

As addressed on TechCrunch, Apple is hyping its Packager for iPhone product that allows developers to create Flash-powered apps. It's better than nothing.

Unfortunately, if the user actually wants to visit a Flash-enabled website, such as The New York Times or the New York Post, he or she will be greeted by the same notice Steve Jobs got at the keynote: "Plug-in required". Why Mr. Jobs went to the New York Times website as an example is beyond me. Finally, as I addressed earlier today, Apple iPad gamers are again getting the short end of the stick. Kongregate and other websites offer literally thousands of Flash-enabled games. The most obvious answer would be that Apple is afraid gamers would play these (mostly free) games as opposed to purchasing its apps.

The real reason behind the Apple iPad's lack of Flash support, however, may be the long standing beef Jobs has with Adobe. As I wrote for the New York Post last summer, "...Jobs publicly dissed Adobe at a shareholders' meeting, saying its Flash Lite wasn't up to snuff for the iPhone. Now millions of users of Windows Mobile, Symbian, and other smart-phone platforms can download Adobe Flash Lite, consumers of the new Palm Pre are expected to have it soon and, with the HTC Hero, new Google Android customers will have it out of the box."

With an estimated 80 percent of the Web using Flash according to Adobe, Apple should get over itself and just have Flash iPad support. It's not like websites in the future are going to be using Flash less.

[UPDATE] Adobe actually responds to the criticism. Read BNET Media Catharine P. Taylor's post "Adobe Weights In on the iPad's Lack of Flash (the Software).

Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/juniorvelo/ / CC BY-SA 2.0