If you look at the mechanics, there are plenty of good reasons for Apple to keep Flash and Java off the iPad.
I know that it’s easy to turn Apple’s decision into some sort of Manichaean conflict between Apple and Adobe. And the media definitely loves those types of assessments. I believe a former colleague of mine used the predictable “slap in the face” analogy to describe this purported technological slight.
My first thought had to do with advertising, specifically that online sort that relies on Flash. Namely, if you want to create a controlled user interface and media environment — such as on the iPad — then a platform such as Flash is effectively a virus in your world. If you know anything about Flash and online advertising, the graphic designer who creates the file has the ability to make some potentially show-stopping decisions that will ultimately affect a third-party website.
Of course, there’s more to it than just advertising, and there’s an excellent post outlining all of the details: Why the Apple iPad has no Java or Flash – Teppefall Labs. I hadn’t thought about the Bluray/HDCP DRM angle on things, but it’s pretty clear to me that there’s a $15 billion Mac market that might be disturbed when some of those nifty, Mac-native features (such as grabbing video and audio from streams and podcasts) stop working. Seems like a reasonable compromise these days.
But to the larger point. When will we hit the point of real conflict — when consumers realize that the market we’re building is the precise opposite of the one we believe we have?
I’m talking about the disconnect between the Internet we’re going to get and the one we think we have.
The Internet We Think We Have
Is open and free. Everything will be free and available everywhere at all times. Especially media. Lots of online media.
And Microsoft will pay for it with imaginary dollars for Facebook. And Google. Well, Google will just keep being brilliant and innovating…all the while making money off advertising.
The only problem is that Microsoft will have a day of reckoning sometime in the next five years. And Google. To borrow a hackneyed line: there can be only one.
Which doesn’t leave much room for the media companies that actually produce and distribute the media we consume: news, television, movies, and even music.
The Internet We’re Really Going To Get
Apple’s model, including iTunes and the App Store, is a sign of what we’re going to see more and more frequently. In the mobile industry, they’re called walled gardens, and we’re going to see more walled gardens in markets dominated by consumer electronics and the so-called fourth, fifth…all the way up to n’th screens. The iPod/iTunes model is a walled garden, and it looks like the iPad will be as well. This makes sense for Apple. It makes sense for the Internet.
But let’s be honest about what we’re doing. With each and every step, we’re killing the Internet that we know in favor of one that will actually make money outside of the capital markets.
Comments on this entry are closed.