Forget about peace in our time. Readers who responded to InfoWorld's online poll have made it clear that they back Apple in the dispute over allowing Flash on the iPhone and iPad. As of 5 p.m. PT on Thursday, May 13, 48 percent said that Apple had the right to block Flash, while 35 percent said that Apple should place no restrictions on Flash or other technologies if users chose to install them. Only 17 percent supported InfoWorld's peace plan, which outlined four steps to allow Flash to run on the iPhone OS while satisfying the technical complaints Apple has made about Flash.
READ THE INFOWORLD FLASH PEACE PLAN DETAILS
THEN VOTE ON IT
The results show that 52 percent of respondents (the pro-Flash and pro-peace-plan respondents) support having Flash on the iPhone, though of that group a third wants Adobe and Apple to first adopt InfoWorld's peace plan. But the overall results also mean that just 35 percent of all the respondents would be satisfied with Flash as is running on the iPhone OS.
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The poll, which is still open, had 2,453 respondents as of 5 p.m. PT on Thursday. You can see the current poll results and vote yourself at InfoWorld.com. You can also read InfoWorld's proposed Flash-on-iPhone peace plan there as well. The peace plan's four basic recommendations were:
- Create a Flash video player plug-in for the iPhone OS.
- Put the core Flash technologies into the standards bodies.
- Create an iPhone-certified SWF exporter for Adobe Creative Suite.
- Explore a Flash app certification process.
Anti-Adobe passions run high
Reader comments at InfoWorld.com and Slashdot indicated strong antipathy to Flash and Adobe's handling of the technology. For example, InfoWorld reader "editorsteve" wrote simply, "Flash crashes drive me nuts." Reader "eww" wrote, "I don't want Flash on my mobile devices until it's stable and far less power-hungry." And "BurkPhoto" commented, "Users worldwide lose over the long haul if a junky technology like Flash is allowed to flourish unchecked. Apple is correct on this one. I hope they pull off an HTML5 revolution and clean up Web video for everyone."
InfoWorld reader "systemadministrator" described the Flash issue colorfully: "Bringing Flash into iPhone or iPad is like bringing farm animals into your living room. They mean no harm, yet, they will have no remorse in stinking up your house, leaving droppings on your floor, and making a mess. Some things should not be on a device that was not meant to support it. Just because there's a browser on the iPhone or the iPad doesn't mean that somehow someway every known plugin must work in that browser."