On Tuesday evening, Steve Jobs sat down with Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg to discuss a smattering of topics that covered Apple's stance on Flash, alongside a number of other topics
On Tuesday evening, Steve Jobs sat down with Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg to discuss a smattering of topics that covered Apple’s stance on Flash, the iPhone 4G/Gizmodo saga, app store rejections, and everything in between.
Below is what the Apple CEO had to say regarding the ongoing controversy regarding Apple’s staunch refusal to support Flash on its mobile devices.
When pressed about Apple’s refusal to support Flash on the iPhone and iPad, despite the fact that it remains a ubiquitous part of most people’s browsing experience, Jobs explained that Apple doesn’t get behind what it categorizes as technologies with no future.
Apple is a company that doesn’t have the most resources in the world, and the way we’ve succeeded is to bet the right technological horse, to look at technologies that have a future. We try to pick things that are in their springs. And if you choose wisely, you can be quite successful.
Jobs went on to point out that Apple is often at the vanguard of abandoning technology that’s seen its day, such as floppy drives on the iMac and optical drives on the MacBook Air, and that Apple is often criticized for making what are considered crazy decisions that are ultimately proven to be ahead of the curve.
Returning again to Flash, Jobs said that Flash has had its day and that HTML 5 is now where it’s at. Jobs opined that video on HTML 5 looks better, works better, doesn’t require a plugin, and while much of the Web does support Flash, “a lot of it is available in HTML 5 as well.”
When asked about his widely circulated “Thoughts on Flash” article from a few weeks back, Jobs noted that he wrote it after getting sick and tired of getting “trashed by Adobe in the press.”
Lastly, Walt Mossberg pressed Jobs and asked what Apple would do if consumers demanded Flash. Jobs casually resopnded:
We’re just trying to make great products. We don’t think Flash makes a great product, so we’re leaving it out. Instead, we’re going to focus on technologies that are in ascendancy. If we succeed, people will buy them and if we don’t they won’t….And, so far, I have to say, people seem to be liking the iPad. We sell like three iPads a second.
via All Things D
