Steve Jobs Writes a Full Explanation of ‘No Flash on iPad’

If you were desperately wondering why Apple refuses to include Flash on the iPhone OS, Steve Jobs has an answer for you. It’s a little longer than you’d probably like, but it’s worth a read.

Jobs wrote a full essay entitled “Thoughts on Flash”. It would appear that Google stirred a bit of emotion in Mr. Jobs with its small Android 2.2 piece in the New York Times, unless we’re to believe that the timing on  this is pure coincidence (people have been complaining about the lack of Flash since the iPad was first introduced).

In short, the essay says that despite the longstanding working relationship between Adobe and Apple, Apple prefers open standards; Flash’s security is poor; Flash has poor performance on mobile devices; Flash sucks down battery power; and Flash lacks proper touch support. Finally, “the most important reason”: “We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.”

For the rest of the intricacies of Jobs’ argument, you’ll have to read the full post. [Photo: whatcounts]