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Let's face reality here: Apple didn't care about the HTML5 standard, they just wanted games to go through their own app store instead of being freely available

Let's face reality here: Apple didn't care about the HTML5 standard, they just wanted games to go through their own app store instead of being freely available on the web. To this day iPhone still doesn't fully support HTML5: you cannot put a game canvas into fullscreen mode on iPhone (all other devices, including iPad, do support this). And when PWA's became available, they were very slow in supporting Add To HomeScreen. And when they did, nobody knew about it. So yeah, don't think apple did it to support standards. They did it to keep control within their own appstore.

noobaccount 6y ago
I worked at Apple. I don’t remember but I’m pretty sure perf just sucked, and I’m guessing there weren’t enough people to deal with it. Like, you are giving way too much credit to strategic thinking. It wasn’t like that. Nobody had a crystal ball.
- mywittyname 6y ago
  They certainly saw how profitable iTunes was and saw an opportunity to replicate that success with applications. They may not have predicted web browsers becoming as capable as they are, but I suspect that senior management saw a threat of mobile websites as app replacements. Even free apps generate revenue for Apple.
  - fomine3 6y ago
    The first iPhone doesn't have AppStore but has Safari. It seems that they don't expect its advantage initially.
scarface74 6y ago
So in that case you should see a plethora of successful profitable games on Android right? The iPhone had the ability to add a page to the home screen on day 1. Web apps were Jobs “Sweet solution” for apps on the original iPhone.
- koonsolo 6y ago
  Even to this day it is not fully supported, so please cut the bullshit https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51160348/pwa-how-to-programmatically-trigger-add-to-homescreen-on-ios-safari https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51160348/pwa-how-to-prog...
  - scarface74 6y ago
    It’s not fully supported because you have to click the “share button” and scroll down and click on “add to home screen”? From iOS 1.0 designers figure out how to design a “Add go home screen” banner in html that would point to the right place.
    - Wowfunhappy 6y ago
      I'm pretty sure GP is referring to all the PWA-friendly features that are missing on iOS, of which there are many.
      - scarface74 6y ago
        He said specifically add to home screen. If the “plethora” of PWA features are available for Android, where is the thriving market of web based games on Android?
kyralis 6y ago
This is completely false. You're forgetting the original iPhone did not have a native SDK - the original plan was for 'apps' to just be web apps. It was only a year later that the SDK was released after the huge demand for one, so claiming that they didn't initially support flash to drive people to an App Store that didn't exist is incorrect.
- koonsolo 6y ago
  I just re-read the letter of Apple, and it explicitly states itself: "Another Adobe claim is that Apple devices cannot play Flash games. This is true. Fortunately, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free. There are more games and entertainment titles available for iPhone, iPod and iPad than for any other platform in the world."
- koonsolo 6y ago
  Check your facts buddy! I remember reading that and concluding it was the app store, so I'm pretty sure it already existed. A quick search on wikipedia: "The App Store was opened on July 10, 2008, with an initial 500 applications available." The article is dated 2010! If you can count that is 2 years! Completely false...tsssss...
  - Talanes 6y ago
    So walk me through the narrative you're trying to sell here. Apple launches the iPhone without App Store or Flash in 2007. A year later, they launch an App Store. TWO years later, Steve Jobs writes a piece about why they don't include Flash. If this was a coordinated attack on Flash in support of the App ecosystem, why wait so long to write that letter? Why launch your phone without an app store in the first place?
    - koonsolo 6y ago
      I'm not claiming they wanted to kill Flash, I'm claiming that dropping Flash because "we have open standard HTML5" was complete bullshit. And years later this is still pretty obvious. iPhone doesn't fully support HTML5 features, which results in crippled PWA installation on iPhone. So no, they did not drop Flash because they like to support HTML5. So if there is no Flash, an no full support of HTML5, it's pretty obvious the only way to get apps on iPhone is through the app store.

noobaccount 6y ago

I worked at Apple. I don’t remember but I’m pretty sure perf just sucked, and I’m guessing there weren’t enough people to deal with it. Like, you are giving way too much credit to strategic thinking. It wasn’t like that. Nobody had a crystal ball.

mywittyname 6y ago
They certainly saw how profitable iTunes was and saw an opportunity to replicate that success with applications. They may not have predicted web browsers becoming as capable as they are, but I suspect that senior management saw a threat of mobile websites as app replacements. Even free apps generate revenue for Apple.
- fomine3 6y ago
  The first iPhone doesn't have AppStore but has Safari. It seems that they don't expect its advantage initially.

scarface74 6y ago

So in that case you should see a plethora of successful profitable games on Android right? The iPhone had the ability to add a page to the home screen on day 1. Web apps were Jobs “Sweet solution” for apps on the original iPhone.

koonsolo 6y ago
Even to this day it is not fully supported, so please cut the bullshit https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51160348/pwa-how-to-programmatically-trigger-add-to-homescreen-on-ios-safari https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51160348/pwa-how-to-prog...
- scarface74 6y ago
  It’s not fully supported because you have to click the “share button” and scroll down and click on “add to home screen”? From iOS 1.0 designers figure out how to design a “Add go home screen” banner in html that would point to the right place.
  - Wowfunhappy 6y ago
    I'm pretty sure GP is referring to all the PWA-friendly features that are missing on iOS, of which there are many.
    - scarface74 6y ago
      He said specifically add to home screen. If the “plethora” of PWA features are available for Android, where is the thriving market of web based games on Android?

kyralis 6y ago

This is completely false. You're forgetting the original iPhone did not have a native SDK - the original plan was for 'apps' to just be web apps. It was only a year later that the SDK was released after the huge demand for one, so claiming that they didn't initially support flash to drive people to an App Store that didn't exist is incorrect.

koonsolo 6y ago
I just re-read the letter of Apple, and it explicitly states itself: "Another Adobe claim is that Apple devices cannot play Flash games. This is true. Fortunately, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free. There are more games and entertainment titles available for iPhone, iPod and iPad than for any other platform in the world."
koonsolo 6y ago
Check your facts buddy! I remember reading that and concluding it was the app store, so I'm pretty sure it already existed. A quick search on wikipedia: "The App Store was opened on July 10, 2008, with an initial 500 applications available." The article is dated 2010! If you can count that is 2 years! Completely false...tsssss...
- Talanes 6y ago
  So walk me through the narrative you're trying to sell here. Apple launches the iPhone without App Store or Flash in 2007. A year later, they launch an App Store. TWO years later, Steve Jobs writes a piece about why they don't include Flash. If this was a coordinated attack on Flash in support of the App ecosystem, why wait so long to write that letter? Why launch your phone without an app store in the first place?
  - koonsolo 6y ago
    I'm not claiming they wanted to kill Flash, I'm claiming that dropping Flash because "we have open standard HTML5" was complete bullshit. And years later this is still pretty obvious. iPhone doesn't fully support HTML5 features, which results in crippled PWA installation on iPhone. So no, they did not drop Flash because they like to support HTML5. So if there is no Flash, an no full support of HTML5, it's pretty obvious the only way to get apps on iPhone is through the app store.