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Adobe claims 7 million attempted Flash downloads via iPhone

updated 11:20 am EST, Thu February 11, 2010

Apple 'does not want' people using Flash


Millions of people have unsuccessfully tried to download Flash Player for the iPhone and iPod touch, claims an Adobe PR person, Mark Doherty. The company recently posted a warning at the Flash Player download site, which informs iPhone OS users that Apple has restricted the technologies needed to make Flash work on their hardware. Doherty notes that by December 2009, as many as 7 million iPhone users had tried to download Flash. Figures had reached 3 million by June of that year.

"We were amazed by the numbers of hits received from iPhone OS devices, from users seeking the Flash Player to play back rich content from their favourite sites," says Doherty. "Users that, before we created the special page, had no idea that Apple do not want them viewing the Internet as they see it today."

Apple and Adobe are increasingly at odds over Flash's absence on the former's handhelds. Adobe insists that without Flash, iPhone and iPod users are unable to see most of the video on the web, as well as many games and other Flash applications. Apple has complained about factors like battery consumption and stability; CEO Steve Jobs is in fact said to have called Adobe "lazy," suggesting that HTML5 is a better solution for video.


by MacNN Staff

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TAGS : 

iPod, iPhone, iPod touch, industry, Adobe, Flash

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  1. cmoney

    Mac Enthusiast

    Joined: Sep 2000

    -10
    02/11, 11:34am | report spam | (1 reply) Reply |

    Apple to users:

    We do it for your own good.

  1. Foe Hammer

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Feb 2005

    +17
    02/11, 11:50am | report spam | Reply |

    Here's a Special Page

    "Users that, before we created the special page, had no idea that Apple do not want them viewing the Internet as they see it today."

    Adobe, do you have a resouce-conscious, stable version of Flash that works on the iPhone and iPod Touch?

  1. LenE

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: May 2004

    +10
    02/11, 12:00pm | report spam | Reply |

    Pretty low demand

    If one considers that Apple has had over 3 billion downloads from the App store. Those 7 million attempts would be around 0.2% of that number.

    Most likely, those attempting to add Flash to the iPhone are not technically inclined enough to understand that the iPhone doesn't do flash. They may have tried multiple times to download it, thinking that something got corrupted.

    7 million seems like a lot, but put in perspective, it looks like there is very little demand on the iPhone.

    --Len

  1. jamck1977

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Feb 2010

    +8
    02/11, 12:08pm | report spam | Reply |

    Like LenE said

    7 million out of the 75 million units sold seem like a very small percentage of iPhone/iPod users care about seeing flash. It's probably worth noting that those 7 million may not be aware how much faster their web pages loaded without loading the flash adds. If they had known that, surely fewer would have attempted downloading the player.

  1. Feathers

    Grizzled Veteran

    Joined: Oct 1999

    +2
    02/11, 12:08pm | report spam | Reply |

    7 Million Idiots?

    I'm guessing that these were 7 million iPhone owners that use PC's as their computer of choice. How do you attempt to download something that doesn't exist? Or maybe it was one guy (at Adobe) that attempted to download it seven million times?

  1. Henriok

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Dec 1999

    +5
    02/11, 12:09pm | report spam | Reply |

    Not more?

    7 million? There's about 70 million users.. so, 10% tried to download Flash, once, in about a year's time. Not so impressive.
    It would be interesting to see how many users that have searched for Flash in AppStore.

  1. doctor9

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

    +2
    02/11, 12:23pm | report spam | Reply |

    Really?!

    And how many of those 7 million returned their iPhones because they couldn't get Flash?

  1. gmsquires

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jul 2009

    +4
    02/11, 12:32pm | report spam | (1 reply) Reply |

    Adobe negative spin

    As usual AAdobe is just trying to spin this whole issue to their advantage and claim that Apple is picking on them and by extension all of those hudlled masses yearning to be fre to view Flash based ads, video and other web based content. Ohh booh hoo, "We demand Apple ascent to bog down their devices and allow potential security breaches through our buggy software by allowing low level access through their software." This is what it really amounts to if one is honest about the situation. There are numerous other technical issues that are conveniently not addressed by Adove and all of the Flash obbsesed web users.

    As far as the number of attempts to download Flash player by people using their iPhone and iPd Touch, one has to ask are these all "unique" attempts or multiple attempts over time by a smaller group of people. Considering how may iphones and iPod Touch are out there the 7million figure isn't that phenominal. One also has to consider that when Flash based content appears on a web page, the browser tends to ask or the web page displays an offer to download the Flash plug-in. Many out of habit just click not thinking that it isn't supported.

    If you really want to know the technical why Flash is not supported then I suggest you read John Gruber's blog "Daring Fireball" for the dispassionate reasons listed over several posts. Here is a link to the most recent extended post.
    http://daringfireball.net/2010/01/apple_adobe_flash
    Other posts can be searched for on his blog site.

  1. deamk22

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Feb 2010

    +2
    02/11, 12:32pm | report spam | Reply |

    Seems very slim

    Given how many opportunities there are to see a Flash based feature on web sites, 7 million is a remarkably small number. On this page alone there is one flash feature and most have many more. That such a small number of click throughs to download the plugin is pretty remarkable, especially given the number of iPhones and iPod Touch's are out there. In addition with the Touch being such a gaming machine many of its users are children who likely clicked through from a variety of game sites and likely multiple times.

    This data seems more like noise than news.

  1. Marzenbac

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2010

    +4
    02/11, 12:46pm | report spam | Reply |

    Attempts not People

    Who's to say there just aren't a few really dim people who just keep trying to download flash to their iPhone?

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