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Internal discussions in Apple, in the hardware division where I was, were obsessed with the Flash runtime (and apps runnning on it) devouring battery. It's wo

Internal discussions in Apple, in the hardware division where I was, were obsessed with the Flash runtime (and apps runnning on it) devouring battery. It's worth remembering that, at the time, the iPhone was quite new and establishing a foothold in the cellular product ecosystem, not the app ecosystem, wasn't guaranteed, and as such was very self conscious about battery life compared to things like a Treo.

majormajor 6y ago
I ran Flash (for ESPN streaming) on a 2010 HTC and yeah, it chewed through battery pretty quickly. It was also a pretty shitty user experience, forcing inflexible web-optimized flash into the phone form factor. Those problems could've been overcome, but it's definitely not like Flash on day 1 would've been good for any users.
- scarface74 6y ago
  2010 was four years after the iPhone.
  - majormajor 6y ago
    Well, three, but who's counting. And yeah: so imagine how bad it would've been then, if it still sucked that bad on 2010 smartphones.
  - coldtea 6y ago
    So? It's not like Flash was better 4 years before. If anything, it was much crappier, without 4 years of any kind of optimization for mobile use.
    - scarface74 6y ago
      That’s kind of my point. Everyone claims that Apple alone stopped Flash from being on the iPhone. But, Adobe could barely get it running on a 2010 era Android phone that had a 1GHz processor and 1GB RAM. How would they get it running on a 2007 era iPhone that had a 400Mhz processor and 128MB RAM?
      - p_l 6y ago
        Considering that iOS barely ran without stuttering... (Reminds me of the iOS 1.0 jokes that Nokias run iOS apps faster, which was true - back when all "apps" were HTML boondoggles)
- Geeflow 6y ago
  I also ran flash on a HTC Wildfire around 2010. Flash sucked and drained the battery. But it was great to be able to access flash content. At that time, I frequently stumbled across content that I could not access otherwise. I was very happy that I was able to access it on my device, despite the crappy flash experience. Take that as a data point that Flash on day 1 would have been good at least for one user. :) Apple's decision probably still benefited the ecosystem as a whole because it drove the adoption of flash replacements.

majormajor 6y ago

I ran Flash (for ESPN streaming) on a 2010 HTC and yeah, it chewed through battery pretty quickly. It was also a pretty shitty user experience, forcing inflexible web-optimized flash into the phone form factor. Those problems could've been overcome, but it's definitely not like Flash on day 1 would've been good for any users.

scarface74 6y ago
2010 was four years after the iPhone.
- majormajor 6y ago
  Well, three, but who's counting. And yeah: so imagine how bad it would've been then, if it still sucked that bad on 2010 smartphones.
- coldtea 6y ago
  So? It's not like Flash was better 4 years before. If anything, it was much crappier, without 4 years of any kind of optimization for mobile use.
  - scarface74 6y ago
    That’s kind of my point. Everyone claims that Apple alone stopped Flash from being on the iPhone. But, Adobe could barely get it running on a 2010 era Android phone that had a 1GHz processor and 1GB RAM. How would they get it running on a 2007 era iPhone that had a 400Mhz processor and 128MB RAM?
    - p_l 6y ago
      Considering that iOS barely ran without stuttering... (Reminds me of the iOS 1.0 jokes that Nokias run iOS apps faster, which was true - back when all "apps" were HTML boondoggles)
Geeflow 6y ago
I also ran flash on a HTC Wildfire around 2010. Flash sucked and drained the battery. But it was great to be able to access flash content. At that time, I frequently stumbled across content that I could not access otherwise. I was very happy that I was able to access it on my device, despite the crappy flash experience. Take that as a data point that Flash on day 1 would have been good at least for one user. :) Apple's decision probably still benefited the ecosystem as a whole because it drove the adoption of flash replacements.