I’ve been a loyal Iphone owner for around two years now. Not that I queued up for hours in the cold to be one of “the first” just to have the latest fad, I waited. Technically the 3G was inferior to the phone I had but the Apple App Store made it all the better to have, some of the apps became essential to my life, as sad as that sounds.
The Iphone has it all except one thing, Flash.
It is more than annoying to view a website and not be able to play Flash videos or presentations, at first I did not mind but even with the launch of the Iphone 3GS and the Ipad Flash is STILL absent.
The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona saw the launch of software aiming to try and solve some of the bigger issues such as handsets not playing Flash videos. Despite the majority of video, animation, and many games on the net being Flash based, the system is not yet fully supported on handsets.
Currently 19 out of the top 20 manufacturers have signed up to support the video and animation platform. The update will not be available on the iPhone because Apple has decided not to support the software.
The excuse that Apple provide is that they claim it drains the battery life of the phone, which is one of the worst I have ever seen. But in all honesty they are going to be left behind very quickly. The Iphone is the dominant handset on the market and will be for many years to come purely due its popularity. However smart phones from HTC, Nokia and LG are slowly catching up and with Flash enabled they would be close if not equal to the Iphone.
In my opinion Apple are purely being stubborn. I would have expected the Ipad to have Flash, if they launch a 4GS Iphone with Flash without an upgrade for Ipad owners this is going to SERIOSULY piss off a lot of people, myself included.
So my message to Apple is, sort it out swallow some pride and just sign up with the other 19 developers. Otherwise I maybe an ex-Iphone owner very soon.