Virgin America Removes Flash Content Due to iPhone Support

**nickhesson** · 03-04-2010, 02:39 AM

Flash On The Way Out?

Adobe cannot seem to catch a break these days, after Steve Jobs cut down Flash, and continues to refuse to support Flash on the iPhone. At first, this didn't seem like a big deal, we all figured Flash would still hold strong and eventually Apple would cave. This doesn't seem to be the case, as more and more websites begin to replace their flash with HTML5 content (once the standards have been put in place by WWWC), many in an effort to support the iPhone.

Virgin America recently updated their entire website on Monday, which was once full of Flash content, and now uses HTML in order to deliver a better experience to the iPhone user and those phones that don't support Flash.

Virgin America is not the first website to do this of course, but its significant enough to indicate the trend of where companies truly want to place their target media, which these days is the increasingly large number of mobile smartphones. Google for one, has already created the ability to view YouTube videos with HTML5.

What are your thoughts? Have you seen any other website turn away from flash in an effort to support Mobile phones? Will Apple have the final say in this? Will we ever see flash on the iPhone? My guess, is no.

**loop4444** · 03-04-2010, 03:00 AM

well since i got the iphone and planning to stick with it (the future iphone,not the damn ipad thingy) i think its great

**GellBrake'rrrr** · 03-04-2010, 03:07 AM

Can we all help but speculate that apple's only real reason to not allow flash support is due to more proffits for themselves??? I think not!!! How would our GIANT brother make so much on games, when there's so many sites that offer free flash games? Just my opinion.... Oh yeah... Am I 1st post for once? Where's my prize? And what is it by the way?

**Kroo** · 03-04-2010, 03:07 AM

News Limited, the largest media organisation in the world is shifting too. The strangle hold Adobe has on embedded media is coming to an end, and that's a good thing. Maybe, just maybe, they'll do something about that leaky boat they call flash and produce something progressive, not sit on their hands like they have been. To have alternatives to flash can only bring back open web, as it used to be, and allow platforms we haven't been able to see because of the predominance of Adobe flash. Flash aint dead, it just got competition, at last.

**GellBrake'rrrr** · 03-04-2010, 03:08 AM

Guess I carried on too much to make such a relavent mark ;(

**ukoda** · 03-04-2010, 03:55 AM

I hope this trend continues as I sick of flash slowing down every computer I use that supports it.

**mikerlx** · 03-04-2010, 05:07 AM

Why complain about flash? iPhone never had it to begin with.

**kingboarder** · 03-04-2010, 05:19 AM

and so it starts......that's exactly what Apple wanted
more will follow soon....

**steve-z17** · 03-04-2010, 05:21 AM

My guess is that with so many people using smartphones already and many more jumping on board we'll be seeing more sites switching to HTML 5. We know Google/YouTube is already offering videos in HTML 5 for those phone users, I think others will start following suit. Too many negatives with Flash, I still use it but the support for us Mac users isn't very good, and with battery life already being a problem on many smartphones...

**feidhlim1986** · 03-04-2010, 06:09 AM

Originally Posted by brianlvincent

Can we all help but speculate that apple's only real reason to not allow flash support is due to more proffits for themselves??? I think not!!! How would our GIANT brother make so much on games, when there's so many sites that offer free flash games? Just my opinion.... Oh yeah... Am I 1st post for once? Where's my prize? And what is it by the way?

If people make free flash games, whats stopping them from making free iPhone games? If they make free iPhone games, Apple gets no income from those downloads, only the price of the iPhone SDK, which Adobe would also get if they are buying the Flash SDK. Also, not every Flash game wold work on the iPhone anywho, mouse input is different to touch input.
And the iPhone SDK is significantly cheaper than Flash.
I have yet to buy a game on the App Store, any game I have is a free demo or free full game.

**Schadde** · 03-04-2010, 06:15 AM

Every time I read something on these forums about Apple doing this or that to screw someone over, it makes me think... is Steve Jobs really some sort of strange Bill Gates experiment accident? Apple sounds more and more like Microsoft every day. The end of the world must be coming.

**SquareWheel** · 03-04-2010, 06:36 AM

I sincerely doubt they updated their website because they wanted to add support on iDevices.

**feidhlim1986** · 03-04-2010, 06:45 AM

Originally Posted by SquareWheel

I sincerely doubt they updated their website because they wanted to add support on iDevices.

Why not? iPhone & iPod touches have well over half the browser market share for mobile devices, so it makes sense to have your site compatible with what the majority are running on their mobile devices.

**isham.padron** · 03-04-2010, 07:48 AM

Not supporting flash is Apples attempt to control content and I don't like that. I think Apple wants users to buy games through their own pipe line and not go out into the free web to play online. Maybe the conspiracy is Microsoft struck a deal with Apple to demonize flash as to make wave for Silver light or even apples own proprietary vector based system.

**mofolo** · 03-04-2010, 07:57 AM

So I learned Action-script 2.0 and 3.0 just so it can be redundant in a couple of years; thanks to Apple.

Thanks Steve.

**NSXrebel** · 03-04-2010, 08:32 AM

Originally Posted by brianlvincent

Can we all help but speculate that apple's only real reason to not allow flash support is due to more proffits for themselves??? I think not!!! How would our GIANT brother make so much on games, when there's so many sites that offer free flash games? Just my opinion.... Oh yeah... Am I 1st post for once? Where's my prize? And what is it by the way?

Originally Posted by isham.padron

Not supporting flash is Apples attempt to control content and I don't like that. I think Apple wants users to buy games through their own pipe line and not go out into the free web to play online. Maybe the conspiracy is Microsoft struck a deal with Apple to demonize flash as to make wave for Silver light or even apples own proprietary vector based system.

I guess you don't know that Apple does offer free games through their App Store and other free Apps. Apple makes ZERO dollars on these free games, other than the SDK.

BTW, most flash games are really crappy with poor graphics and/or poor interface, hence why they're free. That, and all the ads they have splashed all over the screen.

**victis** · 03-04-2010, 09:30 AM

hahahaha die flash die!

**happinessiseasy** · 03-04-2010, 10:14 AM

To everyone complaining that Apple doesn't support Flash just because they want everyone to play games they buy on the App store.. what about HTML5? You can play any Flash game in HTML5 if you code it right. Hell, someone even got a freaking NES emulator running in HTML5 (http://benfirshman.com/projects/jsnes) and it's honestly a playable speed on some browsers.

So why would Apple be allowing HTML5 at all if that were the case?

**Slocko** · 03-04-2010, 10:57 AM

Why not just release an Iphone app for their website? But hey, if in the future there is one less piece of software I have to install on my pc to view websites, I'm all for it.

**quidam_brujah** · 03-04-2010, 11:41 AM

Adobe Flash has been nice as a multimedia construct in the absence of 'standards' but, I'm a big fan of standards (I use them daily). And if HTML5 is going to take care of our needs in a non-proprietary fashion, why the heck not?

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