Lack of Flash a Major Issue for Apple iPad Users

Sure, HTML5 is the next big thing, and in the next six years, it is possible that most of the Flash content on the internet would have been converted to HTML5. Still, that projection is for the distant future, not right now. And that is the main reason why many Apple iPad users find the lack of Flash on the device absolutely annoying.

It may not seem like a big deal at first, but once you realize that there are plenty of websites that cannot be accessed because of the lack of Flash, Apple’s strict policies start becoming a source of disdain. This is the result of a recent survey held by a market research company named Changewave.

The results are not surprising, with the iPad being hailed as the new way to access mass media, the fact that it is unable to handle plenty of video streaming sites online due to the lack of Flash is a severe disadvantage that would not be resolved anytime in the future.

For those wondering why Apple is not getting any Flash support, most of the blame goes to Steve Jobs’ stubborn stance regarding support for the Adobe web format.  For the past few years, Adobe has been struggling to update and streamline Flash to be compatible with not only the Mac OS but also the iPhone OS.

Still, lack of cooperation from Apple has left Adobe unable to stabilize Flash performance on Apple’s devices. Ironically, Jobs’ biggest complaint was that Flash is unstable –an issue that he could have helped resolve.

The problem hit a major turn when Apple launched the iPhone 4.0 OS SDK. The software development kit came with a license agreement for developers that practically banned the use of Adobe’s software as a development tool for iPhone apps. This action drove the wedge that has now completely severed Adobe’s ties with Apple. Flash compatibility will be present in the new Android operating system instead.